MEDFORD, N.Y. — Police on Wednesday arrested a suspect in the shooting deaths of four people at a pharmacy during a botched weekend painkiller robbery, a top county official said.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy issued a statement Wednesday praising the department for "swiftly and safely" bringing the suspect into custody. His statement didn't name the suspect.
Police earlier led 33-year-old David Laffer in handcuffs from his home in Medford, about a mile and a half from the crime scene.
About 30 to 40 officers converged on the home before bringing him out, said Peter Spano, who was working on the lawn next door. A woman was also escorted out of the brown and yellow ranch-style house.
Spano said the "distraught" man taken from the home resembled the suspect shown in surveillance photos, except without a beard.
Zaida Ayala, a longtime neighbor, said the suspect in the photos didn't look like Laffer, who 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," Ayala said.
Suffolk County police said they had arrested someone in the quadruple murder and the investigation was continuing.
The arrest came amid a massive manhunt for a gaunt, bearded man who was wearing glasses and a baseball cap at the time of the killings. Police released footage of the man after the shootings and have received hundreds of tips so far.
The shootings happened at about 10:20 a.m. Sunday 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 a suspect bent on stealing painkillers, police officials said earlier this week. The man stole drugs and killed everyone in the shop before fleeing with a black backpack.
Police identified the two employees who were killed as pharmacist Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and store clerk Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue. Two customers — Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford, and Jamie Taccetta, a 33-year-old woman from Farmingville — also were killed.
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.
The pharmacy, about a mile and a half from the home, remained shuttered Wednesday, and a sign read "closed until further notice." Fresh flowers, stuffed animals, signs and photos of the victims lined the storefront. A local pizza shop owner brought over three pies in case any mourners showed up.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer earlier this week warned physicians and the owners of small drugstores in the area to be vigilant about anyone urgently wanting prescription painkillers.