KENNETH LAWSON Man Arrested For Allegedly Trying To Rob Pharmacy Of Drugs
Reported by: Kristin Keeling
Videographer: John Tincher
Web Producer: Kristin Keeling
Reported: Jan. 18, 2012 7:10 PM EST
Updated: Jan. 18, 2012 7:25 PM EST
EYEWITNESS ONLINE WEBCAST VIDEO C L I C K T O P L A Y
Charleston
, Kanawha County
, West Virginia
Charleston police arrest a man who they say tried to rob Trivillian's Pharmacy of oxycontin.
"People were all around and yet he still had the nerve or was desperate enough to come in and demand what he called the strongest pills we had," said pharmacist, Paula Butterfield.
Surveillance video captured 38-year old Kenneth Lawson walking up to the pharmacy counter and demanding the drugs. But when pharmacists told him they didn't have it, he persisted and then he waited, even as people walked around him and even up to the counter beside him.
"He told me he wasn't going to hurt me but that his wife was being held hostage by someone on the other end of Kanawha City by someone from Illinois," said Butterfield.
Now knowing if Lawson had a gun, employees tried to keep him calm until police arrived, even handing over a bag of drugs. But police actually got there before he even left the counter taking him down right in the pharmacy. For workers and innocent bystanders, seeing him in cuffs was a sigh of relief.
"Came in guns drawn...get down on the ground he dropped the bag and got down on the floor. I can't believe he actually thought he was going to get away with it," said witness, Shawn Sother.
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Kristin Keeling
