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Suspect says addiction led to robbery of CVS

A tip led deputies to the paramedic Friday.

By JOHN FRANK
Published April 29, 2007

SPRING HILL - A Citrus County paramedic said that his addiction to pain pills led him to rob a CVS pharmacy in Spring Hill at knife point earlier this week, Hernando deputies say.

Brandon Scott Johnson, a 25-year-old Spring Hill resident, was arrested Friday evening by the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and charged with robbery with a deadly weapon.

Johnson, an employee at Nature Coast EMS, the private company that provides emergency service in Citrus County, is being held at the Citrus jail in lieu of $40, 000 bail.

According to an arrest report from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, Johnson confessed to threatening a pharmacist with a butter knife and stealing 140 pills of Oxycontin, a prescription pain medication.

Authorities say Johnson, arrived just before 10: 30 p.m. Wednesday and parked his 2004 Dodge Durango behind the store at 11115 Spring Hill Drive. He entered and walked straight back to the pharmacy, where he jumped over the counter.

Johnson displayed a silver knife and told the pharmacist that "she had 20 seconds to give him the Oxycontin or she would be harmed, " the report states.

Another employee confronted Johnson as he tried to leave and a scuffle ensued. Johnson punched the employee in the face but also fell, cutting his head on a rack before fleeing on foot, reports state. He later received five staples for his head injury at a hospital in Tarpon Springs.

Hernando deputies first turned their attention to Johnson after receiving a crime stopper tip Friday. They found him at Citrus County Fire Station No. 1 in Inverness, where he admitted to being addicted to the medication.

Officials at Nature Coast EMS did not return calls Saturday seeking comment.

John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or 754-6114.

[Last modified April 28, 2007, 19:11:20]