Police are continuing to search for the man who on Monday held up a pharmacy inside a Randolph grocery store.
Deputy Chief Ryan Reardon, of the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, said there have been no charges in the case. The FBI has joined the investigation, Reardon said.
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“We have some leads and we’re following them up,” he said.
Investigators have looked into whether Monday’s robbery was connected to an Aug. 1 robbery at the Rite Aid Pharmacy in Manchester, during which prescription drugs also were taken by a robber who fled the store.
“It appears at this point that they are not connected,” Reardon said.
Monday’s robbery occurred shortly after 9 a.m. at Community Pharmacy inside Goggin’s IGA on Water Street when a man passed a clerk a note threatening to shoot everyone in the store if he was not given prescription drugs.
The man escaped on foot with an undisclosed amount of drugs.
The Goggin’s IGA pharmacy last was robbed on June 12, 2012. Shawn M. Merrill, of Augusta, later pleaded guilty to that robbery and confessed to other pharmacy robberies in Connecticut, at the Waterville Walmart and at Rite Aid pharmacy in Fairfield.
Reardon said Monday’s robber is about 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 160 to 170 pounds. Pharmacy surveillance video and witness accounts indicate the robber wore a red hoodie sweatshirt with white writing on the front — possibly a Red Sox championship logo, police said — as well as a dirty white baseball hat, sunglasses and blue jeans. He has salt-and-pepper hair, two or three days of beard growth and a narrow face, according to Reardon.
Capt. Dennis Picard, of the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, said the man robbed the pharmacy inside the store and left the IGA on foot. The pharmacy also has a drive-up window, through which surveillance camera footage photographed the robber running by the window apparently after leaving the store.
A police dog was used to track the robber to an area two blocks to the north of the pharmacy. Reardon said the robber probably got into a vehicle there and drove away.
The robber did not show a weapon but suggested in a note handed to the clerk that he had one, while keeping his hand in his pocket, and he “suggested shooting everyone in the store if he did not get drugs,” Reardon said in an email Monday.
Reardon asked anyone who may have information about the crime to contact Detective Michael Bickford at 623-3591, extension 1202.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
Twitter: @CraigCrosby4
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