NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- In the midst of dinner-time customers, a white man man with a scruffy beard armed with a knife hopped over the counter at the McDonald's restaurant on State Road 44 and grabbed a wad of cash from a register before running outside and taking off in a grey or silver vehicle, New Smyrna Beach police said.
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Courtesy photo. Retired law enforcement officer Kenneth Smith, working as a private security guard at the Medicine Shoppe on North Dixie Freeway, was justified in the fatal shooting of armed robber Keith Allen Higginbotham, shown here..
Courtesy photo/Volusia County Sheriff's Office. Keith Allen Higginbotham, 29, of Edgewater, was the would-be robber shot to death Saturday inside the Medicine Shoppe pharmacy by a plainclothes security guard.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Whether you’re trying to navigate the Internet or still looking for the computer’s on/off switch, the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library has beginner computer classes that can help you find your way, said Pat Kuehn, Volusia County spokeswoman.
A Computer Basics class will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 4. This class is for people with little or no computer experience who want to
learn about the components of a computer and get acquainted with terminology. Participants will explore some of the functions and features of the Windows operating system.
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NSBNEWS.net photos by Henry Frederick. Mark McConnell, a supervisor with Aftermath Inc., oversees a clean-up crew Sunday charged with sanitizing the bloody scene left by Saturday's fatal shooting of an armed robber at the Medicine Shoppe on North Dixie Freeway in New Smyrna Beach.
NSBNEWS.net video by Sera King. New Smyrna Beach police Sgt. Eugene Griffith (left in video) was among several officers and detectives investigating Saturday's 10:15 a.m. deadly shooting of a would-be masked robber by a plain-clothes security guard hired by the Medicine Shoppes pharmacy on North Dixie Freeway after the owner reportedly received information that someone was planning to rob it of the addictive painkiller Oxycodone. Police have not identified the dead robber, described only as a white man nor the identity of the security guard, possibly a retired sheriff's deputy. This was the seventh major crime situation to occur in the city in the past two weeks. New Smyrna Beach police were assisted by the Florida Law Enforcement, the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office and the State Attorney's homicide squad.
Here is a listing of the crimes that have kept New Smyrna Beach cops hopping prior to this morning's fatal shooting of a would-be pharmacy robber. They include an earlier armed robbery of a supermarket pharmacy, an armed robbery/stabbing in a department store, an armed robbery-beating in a yard, a carjacking and beating, a stolen vehicle chase and a prowling car burglar -- all in the past couple of weeks:
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Harry Lodia, manager of the Marathon gas station and convenience store on North Dixie asked aloud what is likely on the minds of many merchants in the wake of a would-be robber's attempt to hold up the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy up the street when he was shot dead earlier today: "Who's next?"
With merchants already struggling to make an honest living in an ailing economy, it seems criminals are becoming more desperate, too, Lodia, said he worries about the safety not only of employees, but their customers as well.
"You just never know if you are next," said Lodia, who is keenly aware of New Smyrna Beach's recent crime wave. He's not alone.
