NY pharmacy shooting suspect to plead not guilty (AP)

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. – A New York man accused of killing two pharmacy employees and two customers during a holdup for prescription painkillers is expected to plead not guilty Thursday to murder and other charges.

A court-appointed attorney for 33-year-old David Laffer, of Medford, is to enter the pleas to upgraded charges in a Long Island courtroom when a grand jury indictment is unsealed.

Laffer and his wife, 29-year-old Melinda Brady, were arrested June 22 in their suburban home a mile and a half from Haven Drugs, where authorities say he opened fire on the victims before jamming a backpack full of prescription painkillers.

Prosecutors have called the killings, which were captured on a drugstore surveillance camera, "the most cold-blooded robbery-homicide in Suffolk County history."

The four deaths were the worst mass killing on Long Island since a gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road train in 1993, killing six commuters.

Laffer, who was originally charged with one count of first-degree murder and resisting arrest, is being held without bail in protective custody in the county jail. His wife is being held on $750,000 bail on allegations of driving the getaway car.

She has cooperated with investigators, police have said, but prosecutors say she also faces the likelihood of upgraded charges from a grand jury in coming days.

Authorities have not said whether the painkillers were recovered after the holdup, but Police Commissioner Richard Dormer noted both were high on drugs when they were arrested.

The victims included the 45-year-old pharmacist who was working so a colleague could enjoy Father's Day and a 17-year-old clerk who was days away from her high school graduation.

A 71-year-old man picking up medication for his ailing wife and a 33-year-old mother of two who was planning to be married this year were shot in the back of the head when they unwittingly walked in on the carnage, police said.

Prosecutors say Laffer left with painkillers "of the hydrocodone family." His fingerprints were found on a piece of paper left on the store's countertop, according to a prosecutor. But defense attorney Mary Beth Abbate has suggested Laffer was a frequent customer and could have left his fingerprints there some other time.

More troublesome for the defense is the surveillance video that captured the massacre, although the suspect in the shooting wore a beard, hat and mask. Laffer was clean-shaven when he was arrested.

Brady blamed her husband when she was led from police headquarters to a nearby precinct holding cell following her arrest last week. "He was doing it because he lost his job and I was sick," Brady said. "He did it. He did all of this," she told reporters.

She had previously posted messages on a website discussing her difficulty with painkillers.

Laffer served in the Army from 1994 until 2002 and attained the rank of private first class, said Mark Edwards, a spokesman for the Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox. While in the service, he worked as an intelligence analyst.

Media reports have said he lost his job at a Long Island warehouse several weeks ago.

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NY pharmacy shooting suspect's wife: 'He did it' (AP)

MEDFORD, N.Y. – The wife of a former soldier accused of shooting four people to death at a local pharmacy during a robbery for painkillers said "he did all of this" for her.

Melinda Brady and her husband, David Laffer, were arrested Wednesday in connection with the Father's Day massacre at the Haven Drugs in Medford.

"He was doing it because he lost his job and I was sick," Brady said as she was led from Suffolk police headquarters in Yaphank early Thursday morning.

"He did it. He did all of this," Brady, 29, told reporters. She seemed addled and disheveled in an over-sized yellow T-shirt and black shorts.

Laffer faces charges of first-degree murder. Brady was charged with robbery and obstructing governmental administration. Her alleged role in the robbery was not specified. They were scheduled to be arraigned later Thursday.

The robber in Sunday's heist entered the pharmacy cloaked in a loose sweatshirt, baseball cap and glasses. His thin face was hidden under a bushy beard — possibly a fake — as he opened fire, killing all four people inside.

Police circulated clear surveillance photos of the gunman after the weekend shooting, and received hundreds of tips in an intense manhunt that ended Wednesday with the capture of a 33-year-old who was led from his Long Island home in handcuffs.

Laffer, who a few years ago proposed to his now-wife at a New York Islanders hockey game, said nothing as he was led from police headquarters Wednesday wearing a white jumpsuit except to shake his head and say "No" when asked by a reporter if he was strung out on drugs. He was later briefly hospitalized, but officials did not say why.

Laffer served in the Army from 1994 until 2002 and attained the rank of private first class, said Mark Edwards, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox. While in the service, he worked as an intelligence analyst.

Friends and neighbors said they did not believe Laffer, whom they described as polite and friendly, was the shooter.

About 30 to 40 officers converged on Laffer's home early Wednesday, said Peter Spano, a landscaper who was working on the lawn next door. Spano said the thin, "distraught" man resembled the suspect in the surveillance photos, except without a beard.

Friends and neighbors said if there were drug problems, they did not see it. He lived at his family's home in Medford with his mother, Pam, and his wife.

According to their wedding announcement, Laffer and his future wife met while they were out to dinner with mutual friends, and he proposed to her at an Islanders game. "To Melinda's complete surprise, he had been planning the engagement for more than a year and his proposal was shown on the large TV screens in the arena," according to the 2009 announcement.

Next-door neighbor Trish Bohlert attended the wedding and said Laffer was always friendly.

"Something must have made him snap, because his personality, I can't picture him robbing a store, much less hurt people," she said.

Zaida Ayala, a longtime neighbor, said Laffer is "a guy that I feel comfortable with, a guy that I could be out, 1 o'clock in the morning in my backyard, and he could be in his backyard and I wouldn't run inside and go get my husband."

She said she does not believe he is the shooter.

"You could give me a million dollars to pick somebody and he would be the last person I would've picked," she said.

His Facebook page showed he was interested in weapons and science fiction. He lists himself as a fan of the conspiracy-based science fiction drama "Dark Skies" and the Spike TV show "Deadliest Warrior." He also lists Springfield XD, a type of pistol, among his interests.

The wedding announcement said Laffer worked in logistics shipping and receiving.

The shootings happened Sunday at about 10:20 a.m. inside Haven Drugs, a pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, about 60 miles east of New York City.

The victims were shot at very close range by the man bent on stealing painkillers.

Everyone in the pharmacy at the time of the robbery was killed. The victims were identified as two employees, pharmacist Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and store clerk Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue, and two customers, Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford, and Jamie Taccetta, a 33-year-old woman from Farmingville.

It was the worst mass killing in Suffolk County since 1974, when a man shot six relatives to death in Amityville, a crime that spawned horror films and a book after the family's home was said to be haunted.

At the pharmacy, about a mile and a half away from the Laffer home, bouquets of fresh flowers, and stuffed animals lined the shuttered storefront. A sign read, "closed until further notice."

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Associated Press writer Karen Zraick contributed to this report.

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Police: Gunman at NY pharmacy wanted painkillers (AP)

YAPHANK, N.Y. – Four people killed during a pharmacy store robbery in suburban New York City, including a teenager due to graduate high school this week, were shot at very close range by a dangerous suspect intent on stealing painkillers, a police official said Monday.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer also warned physicians and the owners of small drugstores in the area to be vigilant about anyone "expressing an urgent need for prescription painkillers." He said added police patrols would be deployed near small pharmacies until a suspect is apprehended.

Dormer called Sunday's killing at the Long Island pharmacy "one of the most heinous, brutal crimes we have ever encountered."

The shootings happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside Haven Drugs in Medford, a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices about 60 miles east of New York City. Police identified the two employees who were killed as pharmacist Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and store clerk Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue.

Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford, and Jamie Taccetta, a 33-year-old woman from Farmingville, were identified as customers who were also slain.

"The victims whose lives were cut tragically short were killed for no apparent reason and without warning," Dormer said. "They offered no resistance and did not appear to provoke the assailant. They were all shot at close range."

The suspect appears in still photographs from the video released by police; he's a gaunt man in his late 20s or early 30s, about 5-foot-8 with a thin build. He has dark hair, was unshaven or has a dark beard and mustache and wore a dark hooded sweat shirt, dark pants and a white baseball cap.

He stole painkillers and killed everyone in the shop before fleeing with a black backpack.

Police have offered a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the man, whom detectives described as "extremely dangerous." Dormer said the department had already received a "substantial number of tips which detectives are working on right now."

Dormer described the quality of the video, which was not released, as "excellent video and it's a good view of what happened." He said the four victims were shot at close range "very suddenly and very quickly ... over a few minutes."

The veteran officer, who came out of retirement to be police commissioner in 2004, was asked to compare the killing to others he has investigated.

"You have four innocent people, two workers on a Sunday morning in a nice, quiet neighborhood and died viciously and violently. Two customers walk into the store, they're not thinking it's their last day on earth and they're killed. This is very unusual."

He said there had been no apparent robbery pattern involving pharmacies preceding Sunday's massacre.

Mejia, who worked part-time at the pharmacy while attending Bellport High School, was due to graduate Thursday. Friends at the shooting scene Sunday described her as "a walking angel on earth." Others said she was planning to attend community college next year.

Bellport High School assistant principal Brian Norton said Monday that grief counselors were available for students.

"She was an absolute sweetheart," he said. "A very lovely young lady looking forward to her future."

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