Two suspects in pharmacy heists killed in shootout
Sheriff’s office says ‘violent crew’ robbed 12 stores in 2 weeks before deadly clash
Two members of a “violent crew” of suspected armed robbers who targeted Houston-area pharmacies were killed late Tuesday in a gunfight with authorities near a Walgreens in Cinco Ranch that had just been robbed, officials said.
The shooting happened at 11 p.m. during a joint investigation by the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Investigators had been watching a white pickup with four suspects inside just before the Walgreens store at 22202 Westheimer Parkway was robbed, authorities said. The same pickup was used in some of the previous robberies.
Authorities said three suspects went inside the store while one waited outside. After the robbery, they got in the truck and led investigators on a short chase to an apartment near the intersection of South Mason and Westheimer. There, robbers fired at pursuing officers, who shot back.
One suspect was shot and died at the scene. Another succumbed to his gunshot wounds later at a hospital.
No officers were shot, but one suffered minor cuts from broken glass. Two other suspects, both 21, were arrested and booked into the Fort Bend County Jail.
“This has been a violent crew that’s been on a bit of a crime spree for the last two weeks or so,” Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said during a late-night press briefing, adding that they were connected to at least 12 robberies in Harris and Fort Bend counties.
“It was our belief they were just going to continue to do this,” he said.
Gonzalez said only DPS troopers fired their weapons in the exchange — not his deputies.
The Texas Rangers, who are leading the investigation, declined to release the names of the two dead suspects and the two suspects in custody.
Texas DPS Sgt. Stephen Woodard, a spokesman for the agency, said they were waiting for the medical examiner to notify the dead suspects’ next of kin. They’re withholding the names of the other two suspects because one of them is “possibly” related to a dead suspect, Woodard said.
The suspects’ ages range from 19 to 21 years old, said Harris County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Thomas Gilliland.
The group was suspected in 12 robberies over the last two weeks in Harris County alone, he said. He said those robberies all took place at Walgreens or CVS pharmacies, mostly between 9 and 11 p.m. They were also suspected in a daytime robbery Thursday at a Walgreens in the 13100 block of Cypress North Houston at Huffmeister, Gilliland said.
He said the group only made off with cash, not drugs from the pharmacy. But Gonzalez said the group was “becoming more brazen.”
“Sometimes, they made off with quite a bit of money,” Gonzalez said.
On Tuesday night in Cinco Ranch, investigators weren’t expecting another robbery as they watched the suspects’ white pickup, which was used in other holdups, according to DPS regional director Jason Taylor.
“We didn’t have any information that another robbery was going to go down,” Taylor said.
He said multiple weapons were recovered from the scene, and no bystanders were injured.