BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – A Colchester man is in jail tonight after allegedly leading police on a high-speed chase through Burlington and threatening officers with a hammer.
When officers approached, they say 41-year-old Thomas Burke got into the driver’s seat and sped off, almost hitting a marked cruiser with its lights on.
Burke ended up crashing into several cars stopped at a traffic light. He then got out of the car he was driving with a hammer in hand.
Officers say he wouldn’t listen to verbal commands—and then ran off behind residential buildings leading them on a foot pursuit.
Then, police say he stopped and took a fighting stance—still holding the hammer—and made threats towards officers and himself.
Police say they then used less lethal munitions on Burke. He dropped the hammer, was taken into custody, and was then sent to Northwest Correctional Facility on $25,000 bail.
He’ll be arraigned in court tomorrow, answering to multiple charges including attempted aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, eluding police, and gross negligent operation.
Burlington police say they later learned Burke was also involved in multiple vehicle pursuits by neighboring law enforcement agencies. This comes just days after a deadly high-speed police chase in Colchester that killed two people.