By Jerry Burke and John C. O'Connell
Homicide Squad detectives said Monday that Fifth Precinct police officers responded at around 9:50 p.m. to CVS Pharmacy, 640 Franklin Ave., following a report of a suspicious person. While they were headed to the scene, the officers were notified of a robbery in progress after another employee of the pharmacy made a follow-up call.
Police say the man, who carried no identification, took one of the employees up to the office in order to open the safe.
Three officers entered the store and were immediately fired on by a black male armed with a handgun, police said, and they returned fire. More police officers responded to help evacuate people from the store.
According to detectives, the subject retreated to the rear of the store, where he again fired at police officers, who returned fire. He then left from a side door and encountered additional police officers. Again he fired at police, who shot back.
The subject then fell to the ground near a dry creek bed just beyond the back of the store and did not fire any more rounds, Homicide Squad Detective Sgt. Herbert Daub said.
Police provided medical attention when they discovered that the suspect had received multiple gunshot wounds, police said. He was brought to Mercy Medical Center, where, Haub said, he was pronounced dead at 6 a.m. Monday. There were no other injuries to civilians or to police officers, although four officers were taken to Winthorp University Medical Center for trauma and released.
Detectives are investigating the possibility that the robbery was connected to a recent series of robberies in the Fifth Precinct involving a black man with a handgun, crimes that they have attributed to the "Latex Glove Bandit." The investigation was still in progress on Monday.
