Suspect in Sept. 4 pharmacy robbery faces federal charge

The man suspected of holding up Gessler Drug Co. last week has been charged in federal court with one count of criminal possession of a firearm by a felon.

Court documents show the case against Ryan B. Schmidt stems from the drugstore robbery on Sept. 4. A complaint filed against the 34-year-old Tuesday in federal court says he had a silver Davis Industries P380 handgun when he walked into Gessler, 4817 E. Douglas, pointed the weapon at a clerk and demanded prescription drugs, saying “I want your opiates.”

The pharmacy manager agreed to fetch the drugs and returned with “seven or eight bottles of generic hydrocodone ... and three bottles of promethazine,” which Schmidt placed in a brown plastic bag he brought with him, the complaint says. He then fled the store and left in a white car.

During a subsequent chase with Wichita police, the complaint says Schmidt struck a Westar Energy utility pole and another vehicle. Officers who arrested him shortly after a felony car stop in southeast Wichita found the loaded handgun in Schmidt’s “back coverall pocket.”

Schmidt was sentenced in 2005 to three years in prison on aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault and aggravated battery convictions, the complaint says. He also has an unrelated aggravated battery conviction in a 2010 shooting, Kansas Department of Corrections records show. Both are from Sedgwick County.

Schmidt is scheduled for a detention hearing in federal court on Monday. His preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 19 before Magistrate Judge Kenneth G. Gale, according to federal court records.

This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 7:47 AM with the headline "Suspect in Sept. 4 pharmacy robbery faces federal charge."