One Too Many Budweisers

The heir to the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune has been accused of assaulting a sixth-grade boy in a school gym. William K “Billy” Busch, grabbed the 11-year-old by his shirt, pinned him up against a wall and gave him a bloody nose, police reports  said. Busch is the great-grandson of beer tycoon Adolphus Busch, whose Anheuser-Busch brewing empire is famous for brands including Budweiser, Johnny Appleseed and Michelob. According to a report in Newsweek, “Mr. Busch pushed [the boy] into a wall at the base of a stairwell resulting in [the boy] hitting the back of his head against the wall. At that time, [the boy’s] nose began to bleed,” while telling the boy, “You fucker! What do you fucking think you’re fucking doing to my fucking kid?” Busch’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said in a statement that Busch had intervened after school personnel failed to react when his son was “bullied — actually sucker-punched — by a much larger middle school student directly in front of him.” He did what every parent would have done in that situation,” Rosenblum said. “The school’s video of the event clearly shows that Mr. Busch did not act with any maliciousness, and that his actions were directed at protecting the safety of his son and others involved. Derek Falb, the father of the boy grabbed by the senior Busch, in a lengthy statement emailed to the Post-Dispatch, called Rosenblum’s statement “inaccurate for several reasons.” First, the statement attempts to paint a grown man with a history of erratic behavior (such as biting a man’s ear off) who physically assaulted an 11-year-old boy as a sympathetic figure. Second, it attempts to paint the victim as a bully when it was Mr. Busch’s son who was the initial aggressor in the incident between the two boys. It just so happens in this instance, Mr. Busch’s son instigated an altercation with another middle schooler of his same age and grade level who defended himself. While Mr. Busch may not have liked seeing his son receive a dose of his own medicine, him attempting to resolve his son’s conflict with another 11-year-old boy, let alone physically, is shameful.

Rosenblum said he would represent Busch in Creve Coeur Municipal Court on Wednesday. Although the boy’s family does not intend to pursue Busch in civil court, they said they will cooperate with authorities in the hopes of a prosecution.