CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A pharmacist, thinking he was going to get robbed, grabbed a gun and fired a warning shot Wednesday evening in the northwest Charlotte business.
Police said a man walked into the Star Bright Pharmacy on Mt. Holly-Huntersville Road wearing a mask and gloves when the pharmacist felt threatened and fired a shot.
Police said they arrested 22-year-old Tyler Perry.
Channel 9 spoke to pharmacist Eric Poore, who said customers have to be buzzed into the store. He also said he bought a gun after he was robbed a few years ago.
Poore said that around 8:20 p.m., he was filling prescriptions for some patients.
They left, and the man opened the door.
"He was wearing a mask and some gloves and was moving pretty quickly," Poore said. "We've been robbed in the past. He looked like he was coming to do harm, and I felt very threatened."
No one was injured.
Police said the pharmacist then detained the unarmed man until officers showed up.
"I reached for my handgun, fired one warning shot in the air and the guy kind of backed off a little bit," Poore said. "Then I ran out to see what was going on, took his mask off, made him get on the ground and called the police."
Channel 9 learned that Star Bright Pharmacy was robbed at gunpoint in 2016.
“A guy came in in a similar fashion, bust in, mask up and put a gun to my head,” Poore said. “Myself and another patient had to go in, open up the safe, so it was a pretty traumatic experience.”
In the first robbery, the thief didn’t take any money, just prescription drugs.
“It just speaks volumes to what's going on with the whole opioid crisis,” Poore said. “People are getting desperate, and it's really causing a lot of problems for people like myself.”
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