Published: June 19, 2009 09:14 am      

Toddler fingers robbery suspect

Westernport man charged in string of pharmacy stick-ups

CUMBERLAND — Four-year-old Jake Block was coloring on his back porch Thursday when he saw a tall man in a black shirt run across the yard.

Moments later, police swarmed the area, blocking roads and calling for a bloodhound as they searched for a robbery suspect witnesses said was wearing a red shirt.

Jake set them straight.

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,” the toddler said, telling how the man in the black shirt crossed the lawn and tried to get in the back door of a neighbor’s house.

The man, Jake said, was hiding behind a bush.

That’s how Cumberland Police caught Michael Timothy Suder, who they believe is responsible for armed robberies at three local pharmacies over the last two weeks.

Suder, 27, of Westernport, was arrested Thursday after leading police on a 15-minute foot-chase near Potomac Valley Pharmacy in the 500 block of Centre Street. Employees there reported a robbery at 12:12 p.m., according to police reports.

Robberies earlier this month at Hank’s Pharmacy on Virginia Avenue and at Steve’s Pharmacy in the Bel Air Plaza on U.S. Route 220 had not been solved prior to Suder’s arrest. In each, a male suspect brandished a knife and demanded prescription drugs, according to police.

“I was here in the store and I knew something was wrong because I kept seeing the guy look over toward the counter, and I saw he had a bag under his arm,” said Gary Twigg, a delivery driver for Potomac Valley Pharmacy. “He had a knife he brandished.”

The man demanded prescription drugs including Percocet and OxyContin, said pharmacy owner Bob Martin, adding that he believed the same man had visited his pharmacy in Hyndman, Pa., earlier in the week.

“He was very suspicious, but people kept coming in the store,” said Martin, who had warned employees to be wary. “He finally got discouraged and left.”

On Thursday, Twigg chased the suspect for several blocks before losing him. Police blocked off the 500 and 600 blocks of North Centre Street, but were stymied, too.

“He’s gotta be between us here,” one officer, heard over the police scanner, said during the chase. “He’s gotta be in this box somewhere.”

Then Jake spoke up.

“If it hadn’t been for that 4-year-old boy I don’t think anyone would have saw him,” Twigg said.

Jake and his family, who live in the 600 block of Centre Street, have been watching the home of a neighbor who is on vacation this week, said his parents, Mary and Louis Block.

“Jake said he’d seen him run through the yard,” Louis Block said. “My kids are in the yard all the time, especially in the summer.”

Suder was charged Thursday with armed robbery, robbery, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and felony theft in connection with the Potomac Valley Pharmacy robbery. Police also served warrants charging Suder with similar offenses in connection with the Hank’s Pharmacy and Steve’s Pharmacy robberies. He was being held at the Allegany County Detention Center on $250,000 bond.

Martin, who has been at Potomac Valley Pharmacy for 35 years, said he’s never been robbed before.

“I think all the pharmacists can rest a little bit easier now,” Martin said, adding that he thought police response was “tremendous.”

Maryland State Police and C3I investigators assisted Cumberland Police.

Contact Kristin Harty at kharty@times-news.com