The people in New Smyrna have got to be just a little unnerved by the wave of violence that has cropped up in our sleepy little town. Saturday's fatal shooting of the armed robber at the Medicine Shoppe on North Dixie Freeway elicits very mixed emotions. On one hand there has to be a certain amount of satisfaction from seeing a really bad guy get a good dose of his own medicine. The plainclothes guard hired by the Medicine Shoppe did a very professional job and is to be commended. On the other hand is the fear of what’s going to happen next since this is just the latest in a series of violent crimes over the last couple of weeks.
These thoughts were echoed by Larry Hugonon , a pharmacist at the Winn-Dixie grocery store, who said "Things are really getting scary around here.” He went on to describe how another pharmacist at the store, Steve Epstein, had acted quickly to give last week's robber exactly what he wanted, Oxycodone pills, as fast as possible to reduce the chances of anyone getting shot in the hold up. Saturday's robber wanted drugs, too.
Hugonon said he has since started a dialogue with the Tri County police Drug Task Force to receive briefings on how to behave during drug robberies to reduce the chances of getting shot and to reduce the chances of getting robbed.
Saturday's shoting gave way to an eerie dose of reality on Sunday, seeing the crime scene clean-up truck in front of the Medicine Shoppe with the logo: Aftermath, Inc., a professional clean-up company that specializing in homocides, suicides, unattended deaths, tear gas and meth labs. I guess they can now add Dirtbags to their list.
The man doing the clean up, Mark McConnell, was not allowed to give any information about the crime. All that could be seen was the big pile of rolled up carpet that had been removed from the crime scene and put inside plastic containers ready for loading onto the truck.
We will have to wait for the particulars on the crime such as the identity of the robber and what exactly took place.
Yes, we have had serious crimes in the past but they were spread out over years. To see eight serious crimes inside two weeks far exceeds anything I have seen here in the last 50 years.