Cops: Suspect arrested in Farmingville CVS robbery

A week after the Medford drug store massacre police said Patrick O’Donnell robbed a CVS pharmacy by handing an employee a note demanding prescription drugs and cash — and fleeing with the proceeds.

After an intensive manhunt by Suffolk County police, who even released surveillance footage of the robbery at the Farmingville store, O’Donnell, 22, of Cheryl Drive, Ronkonkoma, was arrested Thursday.

He is charged with third-degree robbery and is scheduled for arraignment Friday in First District Court in Central Islip.

Unlike the horrific robbery-murder police said a Medford man, David Laffer, committed inside Haven Drugs on Father’s Day, shooting and killing four, police said no one was injured in the robbery by O’Donnell.

Police said O’Donnell walked into the CVS on Horseblock Road at 12:15 p.m. Sunday, one week to the day after the Father’s Day shootings, and asked an employee at the pharmacy service counter about the availability of specific prescription items. He then left only to return “a short time later.”

At that time, police said, O’Donnell handed a pharmacy employee a demand note.

Police said the employee complied and said O’Donnell then fled on foot, taking $200 cash and several hundred oxycodone pills, police said.

Police said O’Donnell wore a gray-hooded sweatshirt, a white-and-red baseball hat and dark-colored pants.

It was not immediately clear if police found O’Donnell as a result of tips generated by their release of surveillance photographs or through some other leads or evidence in the case.