Pharmacy held up in Pine Prairie

PINE PRAIRIE -- Fuselier’s Pharmacy in Pine Prairie was robbed by an armed suspect first thing Thursday morning while six employees, and a high school senior shadowing the pharmacist, were inside.
Owner and pharmacist Nicole LeBas said, “The way I prepared for it in my head is exactly what I did. I’m glad I was here today.”
LeBas said the suspect walked into the pharmacy around 9 a.m., armed with an assault rifle. She said the suspect’s face was covered with a scarf, with only his eyes showing, and he was holding a white trash bag.
“I asked him what I could get him, and he gave me the name of three medicines,” Lebas said. “I loaded the bag, and as I gave it to him, I asked him if there was anything else I could get for him. He asked for the money in the cash register.
“We had about $100 in the register. I gave it to him, and he exited peacefully. He never pointed the gun at anyone.”
LeBas said the suspect was inside the building for five minutes, and he exited the door and went around the side of the building.
“We don’t know if he left on foot or if there was a car there,” she said. “We did not want to chance looking out the door.”
A clerk, who did not wish to be identified, said she avoided making eye contact with the man.
“I did not want to make him nervous,” she said.
LeBas added, “I thought ‘Give him what he wants and get him out of here.’”
LeBas has owned and worked at the pharmacy for 13 years. She said it was the first time the pharmacy has ever been robbed by an armed suspect.
According to a news release from the Pine Prairie Police Department, a detective was dispatched to the pharmacy in reference to an armed robbery silent alarm. Upon arrival, the suspect had already fled the scene. Pine Prairie Police Chief L.C. Deshotel said LeBas told the officer that the suspect was Clint Trampas Chaddrick.
Deshotel said that during the search, the department’s dispatch advised that the suspect’s sister was on the phone stating that she was behind the suspect on I-49 heading toward Alexandria.
Deshotel and officers from his department as well as deputies from the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office then traveled to I-49.
While in route, the officers were upated on the suspect’s whereabouts. Deshotel said the suspect had exited the interstate on the Forest Hill-Lecompte exit, pulled into a gas station parking lot and ran into a wooded area nearby.
Deputies from the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office were already at the location when Deshotel and the other officers arrived.
According to a news release from the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, when Rapides Parish deputies arrived at the scene, they discovered the suspect had fled on foot, and the officers located and secured the rifle. The officers also recovered boxes and opened and unopened bottles of medicine and money in the vehicle.
The officers began searching for the suspect, and he was apprehended near a wooded area by the interstate.
Lt. Tommy Carnline said the sheriff’s dispatch received a call from the Pine Prairie Police Department in regard to the pharmacy robbery. Carnline said the Pine Prairie Police Department relayed information that the suspect had fled the pharmacy in a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle at the convenience store. Carnline said Chaddrick had taken a family member’s vehicle without permission from Evangeline Parish.
Chaddrick, 43, of 1056 Melissa Lane, in the Turkey Creek area, was transported to the Rapides Parish Detention Center and booked as a fugitive on charges pending from the Pine Prairie Police Department.
Officers from the PPPD transported Chaddrick back to Evangeline Parish for processing.
Chaddrick was then charged with armed robbery, disturbing the peace and driving under suspension.