News: Information on the Medford Gunman
(Long Island, N.Y.) After arresting the man investigators believe is responsible for Sunday’s massacre at a Medford pharmacy, police and authorities have accumulated information further implicating the shooter. The thirty-three-year-old Medford resident was taken from his home a short distance away from the scene of four cold-blooded murders. Since capturing their lead suspect, police and detectives have gotten a closer look at what led the gaunt gunman to kill for prescription painkillers.
The thirty-three-year-old was unemployed during the time of the shooting, and living in a relatively comfortable suburban home. Prior to the incident, he was fired from his job as a commercial measuring instrument distributor at a Yaphank company called COSA Xentaur Instrument Corp. According to reports, he was fired after attempting to steal the property of a fellow employee.
As a result of the job loss, the suspect and his twenty-nine-year-old wife lost their health insurance. The wife, who also faces charges for her role in Sunday’s brutal crime, has stated that he lost his job over her heath issues. Reports claimed that she suggested he commit the robbery for her, shooting and killing four innocent people in the process.
One source claimed that the twenty-nine-year-old suffered from extreme dental pain and that she later apologized to the families of the victims. It was also stated that her husband filed for food stamps on Friday, just days before the shooting. Since responding to Sunday’s massacre, it took police roughly forty-eight hours to have the suspect’s home under surveillance.
The wife is being charged with third-degree robbery but has been allegedly cooperating with police and detectives on the case. Reports stated that she drove her husband to and from the pharmacy, giving investigators key information about the crime. Nonetheless, many family members and loved ones of the victims have demanded to know why she didn’t come forward before, or even immediately after the shooting.
Sources claimed that she is also being charged with obstructing government administration by getting in the way of police officers during the raid of her home. She is being guarded at St. Catherine’s Hospital in Smithtown.
The prosecutor for the case claimed that fingerprints matching the suspect was found at the pharmacy and that a .45 caliber handgun was discovered at his home. The gun had been disassembled and was legally registered to the suspect. Reports estimated that ten-thousand pills of hydrocodone, a drug used in the manufacturing of Vicodin, were stolen.
The suspect was a 1995 graduate of Patchogue-Medford high school who joined the army before his eighteenth birthday. He served eight years in the army and finished with the rank of a private first class. Reports stated that the couple returned to their home after the shooting and waved to neighbors while working in their yard.
Fifth Precinct Police Officers escorted the suspect to his arraignment at the First District Court in Central Islip. The proceedings allegedly lasted a few minutes before he was set to be held without bail. While the couple denies being addicted to drugs, many experts on the case have disagreed.
