ROGERS -- A Rogers man was arrested Thursday in connection with aggravated robbery hours after he's accused of entering a pharmacy claiming to be armed with a gun and demanding Oxycontin.
Keith Foster, a spokesman with the Rogers Police Department, said police responded to a 911 call and alarm at 9:30 a.m. at AllCare Pharmacy, 216 S. 13th St.
Aggravated robbery
According to Arkansas law, a person commits aggravated robbery if he/she commits a robbery and … represents by word or conduct that he or she is armed with a deadly weapon.
Source: Staff report
Officers arrived and quickly set up a perimeter, but the suspect had fled, Foster said. Detectives began to process the crime scene and take witness statements from the employees and customers who were in the pharmacy during the robbery, Foster said.
According to Foster, during the investigation it was learned Joseph Dallas Head entered the business and demanded Oxycontin. Head indicated he had a weapon, but a weapon wasn't seen, Foster said.
A surveillance photograph of Head, 37, was posted on the Police Department Facebook page and through local media, Foster said. Multiple people contacted police and identified Head, Foster said.
Detectives were able to find and arrest Head within two hours of the incident, Foster said.
Head was arrested in connection with aggravated robbery, a Class Y felony punishable with a prison sentence ranging from 10 to 40 years or life imprisonment.
Lee Scott, a pharmacist and manager of AllCare, said a man came into the business and claimed to have a gun and demanded prescription drugs.
"He was nervous," Scott said of the suspect. "He paced up and down."
Scott said she never saw a gun.
She felt like the man was in the business for 15 minutes, but Scott said the man was only in there for a few minutes. Scott said employees cooperated with him.
"Losing property is not worth any lives," she said.
The man left the business with the medications, Scott said.
Employees called 911 and pushed a panic alarm, Scott said.
Scott has been a pharmacist for 30 years and has worked at AllCare Pharmacy for more than three years. It was the first time she had been involved in a robbery.
Scott said she and her co-workers are like family and she's relieved no one was injured.
The pharmacy is near St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School, which went into lockdown as a precaution. The lockdown was lifted before noon, Foster said.
Ashley Siwiec, a spokeswoman for Rogers School District, said no Rogers Public Schools were in lockdown. Tillery Elementary School in downtown Rogers kept students in at recess as a precaution, Siwiec said.
Head is under observation at a local hospital and he will be booked into the Benton County Jail pending his discharge, Foster said.
NW News on 10/09/2015