Narciso Gallardo Fernandez, 30, has been arrested and charged with the murder of a random Walgreen pharmacy employee after expressing “frustration with pharmacies”, a US police department last week (April 3) told C+D.
On March 31 at 9:35pm, officers were dispatched to a Walgreens pharmacy “regarding a shooting” and found a man “located inside the store suffering from a gunshot wound”, a Madera Police Department Facebook post revealed.
Read more: WBA sued for pharmacist pressure to dispense ‘millions of unlawful scripts’
Despite “medical aid and life saving measures”, the man – later identified as father-of-two Erick Velasquez – “succumbed to [his] injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene”, it added.
“The 30-year-old male suspect surrendered and was taken into custody…this was an isolated incident, there is no threat to the public, and the shooting was not gang related,” it said.
“Reloading his handgun”
“When [police] arrived they found Fernandez outside, the suspect, who was reloading his handgun at his vehicle,” Madera Police Chief Gino Chiaramonte said.
“We do know he has a disdain or grudge against pharmacies, or large-scale pharmacies by statements made… that is one of the reasons why Walgreens was selected,” he added.
However, the police department stressed that Fernandez was exhibiting unusual behaviour leading up to the shooting.
Read more: WBA facing legal action after inhaler price hike death
Police are currently exploring all contributing factors and have found no connection between Narciso and the victim, it added.
Officers believe he found his way to Madera and entered the Walgreens at random, it said.
Fernandez was booked at Madera County jail and is expected to appear in court this week to enter a plea, it confirmed.
US latest
It comes as the US government filed a nationwide lawsuit alleging that Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) “knowingly filled millions of prescriptions that lacked a legitimate medical purpose”.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed that Boots’ parent company “systematically pressured its pharmacists to fill prescriptions quickly”, despite clear “red flags” and patient deaths.
And in January, the parents of a 22-year-old filed a lawsuit against the Boots parent company following his death from an asthma attack after his prescription allegedly rose from $67 to $539 with no warning.
Read more: ‘Horrific’: Ex-pharmacy manager jailed for life for murdering brother in chippy
Meanwhile that month, pharmacist Natalie Cochran was sentenced to prison “for her natural life without the possibility of parole” after being found guilty of the first-degree murder of her husband.
Mr Cochran “was a minority partner in the business Tactical Solutions Group”, a Ponzi scheme for which his wife was the 51% majority owner, prosecuting attorney Ashley Acord said at the time.
Read more: ‘Ponzi scheme’ pharmacist gets life sentence for husband’s murder
Acord told a West Virginia jury that in 2019, after a series of further investments and failed bank payments, Mr Cochran was “about to discover the truth of everything that [had] been going on”
The prosecution posited that Ms Cochran “injected [her husband] with insulin”, adding that doctors involved in the case “testified that there was no alternative reasonable explanation” for his lethal jump in sugar levels.
