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July 27, 2010

Pharmacist helps nab alleged robber

By Staff New Castle News

NEW CASTLE — A pharmacist yesterday helped apprehend a gunman who had robbed his drugstore only minutes earlier.

According to New Castle police, Matthew Douglas Elmore, 31, of Forrest Street walked into the East Side Pharmacy, 708 E. Washington St., about 11 a.m., wearing a green ski mask and brandishing a .22-caliber pistol. He demanded that the pharmacist give him roxycodone and oxycodone.

The pharmacist gave him 22 bottles of pills, valued at $10,000, and Elmore, who was wearing a red T-shirt and blue jeans, left the store.

The incident happened a block away from Little People Daycare on East Washington Street.

The pharmacist then went to the back door and saw a male taking off a red T-shirt and then a white shirt. He grabbed his car keys and followed Elmore, who was on foot, in his vehicle. He pulled onto the sidewalk on East Washington Street and approached Elmore, telling him, “You just robbed my store.” At that point, a New Castle police officer, who was responding to a panic alarm at the store, pulled up and took Elmore into custody.

A witness told police that she saw a man leaving the pharmacy and that he took off a red T-shirt at the rear of the building, then a white button-down shirt as well. She told police Elmore then headed west toward East Washington Street.

Another witness told police she had seen a male coming from a wooded area near a Dumpster close to the pharmacy. She said the male made a right on West Avenue toward East Washington Street. She later identified Elmore as the man she had seen.

Police searched the wooded area that the witness had indicated and found a blue bag with 22 pill bottles and a green mask on the ground next to a trailer. Alongside the bag was a .22-caliber Firestorm pistol.

Inside the bag were six bottles of roxycodone and 16 bottles of oxycodone.

Footprints found in the mud were photographed, as were a red shirt and white button-down shirt located in the rear parking lot of the pharmacy.

Police said the green mask will be sent to a lab for DNA testing.

Elmore faces felony charges of robbery, possession of a firearm that is prohibited and firearms not to be carried without a license. He also is charged with three counts each of recklessly endangering another person and simple assault, and one count each of theft and receiving stolen property.

He is in the Lawrence County jail on a $25,000 bond. His preliminary hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

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