Police Beat for October 27

Annapolis area

Pharmacy robbed

A gunman held up an EPIC pharmacy Tuesday, stealing narcotics, city police said.

Officers were called to the pharmacy on Giddings Avenue in West Annapolis at 8:43 a.m. for a holdup alarm sounding. When they arrived, the pharmacist said a man had come in, walked directly over to the counter and demanded Oxycontin.

The man lifted his hooded sweatshirt and brandished a black semiautomatic handgun, police said. The pharmacist unlocked the drug cabinet and the man filled his sweatshirt pocket with an unknown amount of prescription drugs, police said.

Then he walked out toward Ridgely Avenue. Officers weren't able to find him.

The robber was described as a white man in his late 20s or early 30s, 5 feet 8 or 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds. He was wearing blue jeans, a black hooded sweatshirt and a black bandana covering his face, police said.

Attempted robbery

Two men tried to rob the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on West Street on Tuesday morning, city police said. Officers were called to the restaurant at 1978 West St. at 10:35 a.m. for the reported robbery. The caller said he was an employee and he was hiding in the restroom, police said.

Employees told officers that two men came in as the store was opening and announced a robbery. The employees told the men that they couldn't get into the safe. One of the men hit an employee in the back of the head with a gun, police said.

The would-be robbers then left without getting any money or merchandise. They were described as black 18-year-olds. One was 130 pounds and wearing blue jeans and a black jacket; the other was 150 pounds and wearing blue jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt, police said.

Gate destroyed

A city man was arrested Tuesday after police said he broke a parking gate on Green Street over the weekend.

Officers were called to the parking lot at 180 Green St., which belongs to the county school system, for the report that a security gate had been damaged. The gate allowing access to the lot had just been installed Friday, and a security camera showed it was destroyed at about 11 p.m. Saturday. Using surveillance video, police were able to track down the 2001 Ford's owner, who said her boyfriend's brother had been using the car at that time. The man turned himself in to police Tuesday. Carter Lyle Woodruff, 24, of Dubois Court, was charged with destruction of property and released on his own signature.