ST. CHARLES PARISH, La. — Investigators say the pharmacist at a family-owned drug store shot and killed a man who was trying to rob the store.
It happened at the Thrift Village and Drug Store in Lulling just before 6 p.m. on Monday.
At a time when St. Charles Sheriff Greg Champagne said that crime has gone down significantly in the area, a man with a lengthy record of prior narcotics offenses tries to rob this pharmacy on Martin Luther. King Jr. Day
The business we’re closed, and the suspect apparently did not expect for the pharmacist to have a gun. The worker shot him, he ran away and collapsed dead behind the building.
Valarie Brown was walking her pitbull, Duece, in her quite neighborhood when he pulled her toward someone lying down behind the strip mall on paul Mallard road.
“I assumed it was a man lying down, and when I said ‘hello,’ he never replied anything,” Brown said.
Around the side there was a blood trail, and out front St. Charles Parish deputies with guns drawn.
“I was trying to do hand signals that he was laying down back here," Brown said.
Sheriff Champagne said 36-year-old Mark Fisher, Jr. of Madisonville put on a mask and went into Thrift Village Drugs in the Village Square shopping center Monday night, shortly before closing time at 6 p.m.
The sheriff said Fisher was armed with a semi-automatic handgun and tied up a woman who worked there and demanded narcotics.
The pharmacist said they were locked up and he had to get a key out of his bag, instead the pharmacist pulled his personal gun and shot Fisher in the leg.
“We believe that in the shooting, the pharmacist was completely justified, we believe this was a shooting in self-defense, and the pharmacist had ample reason to fear for his life and his safety,” Champagne said.
Brown said she knows the pharmacist and saw him after the incident. She said he was cold and she gave him her coat.
“he couldn’t believe what happened. He was mumbling words but I couldn’t understand. The man I think was truly in shock,” Brown said.
She knows his coworker, too.
“She was a ball of nerves, poor darling, she was shaking so bad,” Brown said.
“Many business owners in this parish do posses firearms in their business, so hopefully that’s a word to the wise as well. Just because we’re a sleepy country parish doesn’t mean that people don’t believe in protecting themselves here,” Champagne said.
Champagne said it’s legal for a business owner to have a gun in the parish. He also said his office has video footage that clearly shows how the incident unfolded.