Mass murder suspect David Laffer cased several Long Island pharmacies before settling on Haven Drugs and had his gun hidden inside a backpack when he fired the first shot, an outraged prosecutor revealed Thursday. “Mr. Laffer had been looking for a pharmacy for days before staking out the pharmacy the night before.” Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Mass murder suspect David Laffer cased several Long Island pharmacies before settling on Haven Drugs and had his gun hidden inside a backpack when he fired the first shot, an outraged prosecutor revealed Thursday.
“Mr. Laffer had been looking for a pharmacy for days before staking out the pharmacy the night before,” Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.
Speaking after Laffer was arraigned on five murder counts and other charges, Spota unspooled the details of a store video that captured the June 19 slaughter on camera.
“This horrific crime exposes one of our most basic fears, a gunman who is willing and – in this case – almost eager to randomly and senseless kill innocent people,” he said.
The first to fall, Spota said, was unsuspecting pharmacist Raymond Ferguson, 45.
“The killer walks to the counter, places the backpack on the counter and talks to the pharmacist,” he said.
Jennifer Mejia, the store’s doomed 17-year-old clerk, had been telling Ferguson how she and her mom had gone shopping and to Saturday night mass when Laffer walked up to them, Spota said.
“Those were the last words that Ms. Mejia ever spoke,” he said.
Laffer asked to speak with Ferguson alone, Spota said. So Mejia excused herself and walked “into a nearby small alcove where drugs are stored,” he said.
If Ferguson had any qualms about talking to a man wearing sunglasses and a scruffy beard darkened with mascara they weren’t evident on the tape – not even when the suspect began lifting up the backpack, Spota said.
“He’s moving it up as he prepares to fire,” Spota said.
When Laffer pulled the trigger, it was without warning.
“Without any demand whatsoever of drugs or for money he shoots Mr. Ferguson in the abdomen, through the back pack,” the prosecutor said. “We see Mr. Ferguson grab his stomach and he falls backwards to the floor.”
Then Laffer went after Mejia.
“He walks into the small storage alcove where the helpless and defenseless Jennifer Majia was,” Spota said.
“In a second or two we hear two loud shots. We hear screaming. The killer has shot her twice, killing her.”
Ferguson, 45, was still moving when Laffer emerged.
“He walks over to him and at point blank range shoots him twice in the face, killing him,” Spota said.
That done, Laffer began looking for drugs behind the counter when a sound sent him scurrying to the front door, Spota said.
In walked the third victim, 71-year-old Bryon Sheffield.
“Mr. Sheffield walks in a gets shot in the face,” Spota said. Laffer “walks over his body to the front of the store and begins shoving drugs into his backpack.”
