Man accused of robbing pharmacy arrested

Surveillance video helped generate tips, police say

Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006

by Andrew P. Moisan

Staff Writer

Fore more, see Cameras become hot tool for police.

A 46-year-old man who police say robbed a Gaithersburg pharmacy at gunpoint over the weekend was arrested yesterday, a day after photographs and surveillance video of the incident had been made public, police said today.

‘‘The media coverage generated tips that (led) to his identification and arrest,” county police said in a statement on the arrest of Douglas Vincent Minchillo, whose address is unknown.

Police say Minchillo walked into the Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, at 9715 Medical Center Drive, about noon with an unidentified object in his hand, announced a robbery and threatened to shoot pharmacy employees.

He then stole the painkillers OxyContin and Percocet and fled in an unknown direction, police say.

Minchillo is also accused of robbing the White Flint Pharmacy, at 11125 Rockville Pike in Rockville, last year.

In that incident, on Oct. 25, police say he showed a gun in a plastic bag and fled with more than $500 of Percocet and Vicodin, another painkiller.

Surveillance was not used that case, police said, declining to specify what evidence connected him to it.

‘‘Through the course of the investigation it was determined that he was responsible for both,” Lucille Baur, a county police spokeswoman, said.

Investigators released two photographs and a clip from the Gaithersburg pharmacy’s surveillance cameras on Tuesday, and the images were picked up by news media, including The Gazette.

Minchillo is charged with two counts of armed robbery, four counts of first-degree assault, two counts of use of a handgun in a violent felony crime, and two counts of theft over $500.

He was scheduled for a bond hearing today.