Special IMPD unit catches four pharmacy robbery suspects
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A special investigative unit with IMPD tracked down several people suspected of robbing pharmacies across the city.
It’s a crime that at one point last year was happening more often in Indianapolis than anywhere else in the country.
The arrest involves four suspects and three robberies.
Police said evidence from the different scenes helped detectives find a vehicle connected to them. The group was found inside of it.
Sade Perkins, Simone Briscoe, Tryice Perkins, and Trayvona Stephens all face robbery charges.
Most recently, police said they robbed a Walmart pharmacy on West 10th Street.
They said surveillance footage and tactics by their covert robbery unit helped track them down.
Police said the suspects also admitted to robbing two Marsh pharmacies along 86th Street on the north side.
According to a police report, a victim said one of the suspects threatened to kill everyone in the store if she didn’t get the narcotics.
“I think they targeted these specific locations because of the ease of access even with security you can typically get in these places and out because they’re so big and there’s so many people,” said Sgt. Kendale Adams, IMPD.
Last year, I-TEAM 8 did an investigation on pharmacy robberies after learning Indianapolis was leading the country in that specific crime for 2015 through September.
It found that the motivation behind many of the crimes was to sell the narcotics.
It also found pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS began adopting special time-delayed safes. Those safes prevent pharmacists from being able to quickly access the drugs. In one attempted robbery case, it convinced the suspect to leave.
IMPD wouldn’t disclose if the pharmacies in these cases had the time-delayed safes. However, they did have enough surveillance cameras to catch the suspects.
