Suspect jumps counter, steals drugs

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - Newport News Police have arrested two men in connection to a robbery at a pharmacy Saturday afternoon.

Harold Eley with the Newport News Police Department said officers were dispatched to the Rite Aid located at 10118 Warwick Blvd. around 3:30 p.m. for a report of a robbery. Employees told police two male suspects entered the business and ran to the back of the store.

There, one suspect jumped the prescription drug counter and ordered the pharmacist to the narcotics safe at gunpoint, Eley said. The suspect demanded all the Oxycontin the store had.

"They go for about 50 cents to a dollar per milligram and some of the pills were 80 milligrams," Newport News detective Charles Howser said. "[Oxycontin] gives you a high. It's also a pain reliever and some people get addicted to it because of previously being prescribed them.

After obtaining the drugs, both suspects fled the business. According to Eley, a witness outside the store watched the suspects get into a silver and gray four-door vehicle described as a Subaru with a Virginia tag of WWJ-8957.

In a matter of hours, officers were able to identify the suspects as 22-year-old Robert Lee Schlie, Jr. of Williamsburg and 24-year-old Matthew Philip Sherman, of Newport News. Both suspects have been charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit a felony and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

"I guess they're desperate and they'll do anything. I'm glad the citizen came up and got the information so that the police could get them," Rite Aid shopper Sandy Saunders said.

Police said they have investigated at least two other cases like this one in many years and say it is a growing trend.