Westbury man charged in pharmacy robberies

A Westbury man has been charged with robbing a Bethpage pharmacy of painkillers -- an hour after he tried to rob another drugstore for the second time, Nassau County police said Saturday.

David Ok, 21, was arraigned Saturday in First District Court in Hempstead on two counts of first-degree robbery, attempted robbery and criminal use of a firearm. Bail was set at $300,000.

Police said Ok, with a black cloth covering his face, entered Island Care Pharmacy on Old County Road in Plainview about 1:30 p.m. Friday, armed with a handgun.

They said Ok had robbed the same drugstore Aug. 19, after which the owner had installed a bulletproof "bandit barrier" at the pharmacy counter.

Ok fled after seeing the barrier, police said. There were five employees but no customers in the store at the time.

About an hour later, Ok entered Bethpage Medical Pharmacy on Hempstead Turnpike in Bethpage and handed the pharmacist a note demanding oxycodone, police said.

Ok received an undetermined amount of pills and fled in a black Volkswagen, police said. The two employees there weren't injured.

Police said they found the Volkswagen in front of Ok's home in Westbury, where he was arrested at 5:35 p.m. Friday without incident.

Further investigation revealed that Ok had committed the August robbery at Island Care Pharmacy, police said.

Authorities say the robber in that holdup took off with more than 1,000 oxycodone pills valued at about $30,000. Oxycodone is an opioid medication used to treat moderate to severe pain.

On June 19, David Laffer, 33, said he was looking for painkillers when he robbed Haven Drugs in Medford and killed four people in the store. He has pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and faces the likelihood of spending the rest of his life in prison.

Those killed were pharmacist Raymond A. Ferguson Jr., 45; Jennifer Mejia, 17, a high school student who worked part time at the store; and customers Jaime Taccetta, 33, and Bryon Sheffield, 71.