MEDFORD, L.I. (PIX11)—
Authorities believe the suspect will emerge once his current stash of painkillers run out.
According to detectives, the fatal shooting unraveled in the Haven Drugs Pharmacy minutes after it opened at 10 a.m. Sunday. That's when a man who police describe as about 5-foot-8 with a thin build, in his late 20s or early 30s with dark hair and a dark beard shot and killed two employees and two customers of the pharmacy at 76 Southaven Road.
The seven new images released by the Suffolk County police commissioner Monday afternoon join the two pictures that police released on Sunday. The new pictures were taken by the pharmacy's surveillance cameras as the suspect carried out his deadly crimes. In one picture, a gun is visible in the man's right hand. Detectives say it's the firearm the man used to kill everyone in the pharmacy.
His victims were Jennifer Mejia, 17, the pharmacist's assistant, who was filling in for somebody else's work shift Sunday morning. Her wake will be held Tuesday and Wednesday evening in Patchogue. Wednesday would have been her senior prom night, and she was supposed to graduate from high school on Thursday.
The pharmacist, Raymond Ferguson, 45, was also filling in on someone else's shift on Sunday when the man opened fire. When the gunshots stopped, Ferguson was dead and so were two pharmacy customers, Bryon Sheffield, 71, there to pick up his sick wife's heart medication, and Jaime Taccetta, 33, a single mother with two kids, whose wedding date was set for next month.
"He killed four people. For what?" asked her father, Ralph Taccetta, when he came by the pharmacy Tuesday morning to admire the two growing makeshift memorials there, one on the sidewalk, the other by the front door. The dozens of candles, flowers and cards are dedicated to Taccetta's daughter and the other victims.
His wife, Jaime's Taccetta's mother, had been on a cruise to Jamaica with Ms. Taccetta's grandmother when the shooting happened, and did not learn about the murders until they pulled into port in New York Monday evening.
"Devastated, devastated," is how Ralph Taccetta described his wife's reaction. He used the same words to describe the mood of Jaime Taccetta's fiance, whose mother had died just two months ago. "[Jaime] held him together. I was at their house [Monday]. She had planted a garden there. [Her fiance and I] spent hours just crying in that garden. She loved gardening." Jaime Taccetta's oldest child, a teenager, has been told the news of his mother's death. Her youngest, who is five years old, has not.
Still, the victim's father, Ralph Taccetta, managed to see something positive in the midst of the tragedy, as he looked at the mounting offerings of condolence left by friends and strangers in front of Haven Drugs Pharmacy. "It's good," he told PIX11 News, "the outpouring of support. It's good when we all come together."
He also asked that anyone with information come forward to catch his daughter's killer, who he described as an animal. The phone number for Suffolk County Police Crimestoppers is 800-220-TIPS (8477). All calls are kept confidential, and there is now a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the man's arrest.
Investigators have also contacted drug treatment centers, hospitals and pharmacies on Long Island and asked them to review their files to see if they are aware of anyone similar to the suspect, who might have a need for prescription drugs.
That's what the man loaded up into his backpack before leaving the killing scene. It's unclear if he stole the drugs for his own use or to sell on the black market, but law enforcement authorities say that prescription meds like oxycodone can sell for as much as $8.00 per pill on the street. One bottle can contain up to 100 pills, and the pharmacy killer may have stolen dozens of bottles from the crime scene.
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