Fathers Day Pharmacy Shooter Caught and Pleads Not Guilty

The suburban neighborhood in Medford Long Island New York will never forget this years’ Father’s Day. That’s because four innocent lives got brutally executed in a local pharmacy by a man robbing the store for Oxycodone.  The assailant took only the drugs and left all the money. Read our “Father’s Day Massacre” story.

Suffolk County police examined the video footage from the pharmacy’s security cameras. Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said, “[This is] one of the most heinous, brutal crimes we have ever encountered.”

The video showed David Laffer,33, walk into the pharmacy calmly and started small talk with the pharmacist Raymond Ferguson at the counter. Then without warning Laffer pulled out a .45-caliber pistol and shoot him in the abdomen.

Then Laffer cornered 17-year-old pharmacy clerk Jennifer Mejia into an aisle and shot her twice. Then he returned to Ferguson and shot two more bullets into his head.

Then he filled his backpack with about 10,000 Oxycodone and other norco painkiller medications. He tried to cover his tracks as he started to leave the pharmacy; when two unsuspected customers walked in, Bryon Sheffield, 71, and Jamie Taccetta, 33. Laffer shot them both in the back of their heads at point blank range.

This created a three day man haunt for a tall slender white male with a black beard and a black backpack. Laffer left fingerprints at the scene of the crime. Those prints matched the prints that he used to get the permit for the .45-calibor pistol that he used during the massacre.

On Wednesday at about 9:30 a.m. helicopters were hovering over Laffer’s home and as many as 40 officers raided his house. Laffer and his wife Melinda Brady, 29, shared the home with Laffer’s mother.

Laffer tried to fight back and grabbed for a police officer’s weapon. He was then tackled to the ground and was removed from his house with a bashed and bloody face. Brady was also arrested for obstructing governmental administration as she allegedly also fought and tried to stop Laffer from being taken into custody. She is also being charged with third-degree robbery for being the alleged get-a-way driver.

Police said that Brady and Laffer where both high when they were arrested.

Laffer had two black eyes and bruises all over his face during his arraignmentlate Wednesday night – where court ordered attorney Mary Elizabeth Abbated entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. On Thursday the best she could do was plea for a reasonable bail amount, because Laffer was held without bail and charged with first-degree murder.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney John Collins said that the shooting at the pharmacy was, “the most cold-blooded robbery-homicide in Suffolk County history.”

After investigators searched Laffers home they recovered the .45-calibor pistol that was believed to have been used in the massacre. The gun was disassembled in his home and was registered under his name.

Brady appeared in Central Islip court were the judge set bail at $1.5 million bond or $750,000 cash. Brady told reporters in a confused manner that Laffer did it. Brady said, “He did it, He did all of this…he did it because he lost his job and I was sick.”

Police Commissioner Richard Dormer was at a loss of words for Laffer and Brady, because they were a couple with out any previous criminal records or history of violence.

Dormer said, “It is very difficult to comprehend this…to suddenly engage in this type of violent behavior is beyond understanding. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t have the answer.”

If you are struggling with painkiller addiction, please get treatment for opiate addiction immediately, before it is too late.

– Cesar V, the Addiction Reporter