After arrest, Wichita police exploring whether pharmacy robberies are linked

Correction: The Gessler Drug Co. pharmacy is on East Douglas near Il Vicino. A previous version of this story described the location incorrectly.

Police are looking into whether a man arrested after a pharmacy robbery Thursday afternoon is responsible for another pharmacy robbery last month.

The suspect, identified in police records as 34-year-old Ryan Schmidt, was arrested shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday after he clipped an SUV while fleeing from police and crashing into a utility pole in the 900 block of South Barlow, Lt. James Espinoza said.

An armed man walked into Gessler Drug Co. pharmacy at 4817 E. Douglas at about 3 p.m., pointed a silver handgun at two employees and demanded certain prescription medications, according to a police report.

He left in a white vehicle, which officers spotted at Oliver and Lincoln, Espinoza said. They pulled the vehicle over next to Southeast High School, but as the officers approached the vehicle on foot, the driver sped off.

A short chase ensued before the suspect tried to pass an SUV at Lincoln and Barlow, Espinoza said. The car clipped the SUV and “spun out,” he said, striking a utility pole.

Officers arrested the suspect and found a gun in the car. Lost in the robbery were prescription drugs and a liquid narcotic, Espinoza said.

Neither Schmidt nor the couple in the SUV were injured in the collision. Schmidt resembles the description given of a man who robbed Parklane Pharmacy at 1530 S. Oliver on Aug. 19, Espinoza said. In both robberies, the suspect used the same mode of operation.

“It’s not confirmed” that there is a connection, Espinoza said, but there are enough similarities to warrant the investigation.

Schmidt has prior convictions for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault and aggravated battery for threatening two uniformed Wichita police officers and others with an assault rifle in December 2004, according to Kansas Department of Corrections and Sedgwick County District Court records. He also served time in prison on an aggravated battery conviction connected to a shooting in April 2010 and has several traffic and juvenile criminal convictions.

Most recently Schmidt was placed on probation for criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, fleeing or attempting to elude police and two counts of theft stemming from car theft on Dec. 21, 2013, according to district court records. That sentence, which carried an underlying prison term, was imposed in May.

Espinoza said police were unaware of Schmidt’s criminal history until after his arrest.

Schmidt is being held in Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond on allegations of probation violation and on $100,000 bond on allegations of aggravated robbery and multiple traffic violations.

He had not been formally charged with the pharmacy robbery as of Friday.

Contributing: Amy Renee Leiker of The Eagle

This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 3:20 PM with the headline "After arrest, Wichita police exploring whether pharmacy robberies are linked."