Medford, NY – Mass Police Hunt: 2 Workers, 2 Patrons Shot To Death At NY Pharmacy

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    Homicide investigators work in front of Haven Drugs, Sunday, June 19, 2011 in Medford, N.Y., where four people were shot and killed earlier in the day. Investigators believe that a single gunman was responsible for the shooting of two employees and two customers inside the pharmacy. (AP Photo/David Rubin)Medford, NY – A gunman shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.

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    The massacre happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.

    Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy’s parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Suffolk County Police Department’s Chief of Detectives, Dominick Varrone. No one inside the shop survived.

    The pharmacy, Haven Drugs, had opened for business at 10 a.m., and Varrone said investigators’ initial belief was that a single gunman was responsible for the bloodbath, and that the motive was robbery. Just how the shooting unfolded, and why, were unclear, he said.

    The shooter fled the pharmacy, and no suspects were in custody.

    Officials weren’t immediately releasing additional details about the shooting, or the names or ages of the victims.

    A call left for the man listed in state records as the pharmacy’s owner and chief pharmacist, Vinoda Kudchadkar, wasn’t immediately returned.

    Police had the streets around the pharmacy blocked off with crime tape. Officers could be seen scanning the ground for evidence, and as of late afternoon the bodies had yet to be removed.

    News of the shootings stunned neighbors, who said they heard the commotion after police arrived, but saw nothing of the crime.

    “It’s absolutely crazy. There are no words,” said Scott Radice, who lives four houses up the street from Haven Drugs and said he has been a customer for 15 years. “I’m hoping they had cameras in the pharmacy so they can catch this guy.”

    “This is a family business. Everyone goes there. It is our neighborhood pharmacy,” said neighbor Kathy Culhane. “If you had a problem with prescriptions, he’d go to bat for you,” she said of the owner, who wasn’t at the pharmacy when the shooting happened.


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    14 Comments
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    lollypop
    lollypop
    12 years ago

    everyday another shooting, were are all those guns coming from?

    12 years ago

    I’m always astounded regarding the reporting of these heinous crimes with the notation “a robbery gone wrong”. Somehow, the latter phraseology implies that if the robbery had “gone right”, there wouldn’t have been any victims. The fact of the matter is that in many of these stickups, even if the gunman is masked (and he can’t be identified by the victims), and even if every cent is handed over to the robber, these sadistical gunman will still shoot everyone to death. It has happened many times before. There is an unsolved robbery, which occurred in a suburb outside of Chicago several years ago, where a gunman held up a women’s clothing store, and killed all five women customers in the store. The death penalty was designed for such sadistical predators. Although it may not serve as a deterrent, at least there is retribution against these violent offenders.

    jacsdriver1
    jacsdriver1
    12 years ago

    its such a shame when you cant go to the local drugstore anymore,they are really nice people those opiates and guns drive people to do some really crazy things.my heart goes out to those family members who lost their loved ones

    12 years ago

    All Yidden should join the NRA

    Voice-of-Reason
    Voice-of-Reason
    12 years ago

    Stores especially pharmacies need to arm themselves. This is happening in pharmacies throughout the country.

    Benny
    Benny
    12 years ago

    Any person that thinks that by restricting gun buying – will stop those thugs from killing people is wrong. If you are planning on robbing someone – you are not buying your gun legally, but you get it illegally.
    Only the peple that will suffer are the law abiding citizens!
    If the robber knew that all four people could have a gun – he would never even dear to think of robbing that store!
    So whose fault is it?
    All those polititians that alter the constitution by restricting you from your right to have a gun and you – who supports it!
    Try to come to my friend’s house who has few guns to rob him, you will look like a sifter in 30 seconds!