Police shot and killed a man suspected of robbing an Upper East Side pharmacy at gunpoint Friday after officers tracked him through a decoy pill bottle equipped with a GPS device, NBC 4 New York has learned. MIchael George has the story.
Police shot and killed a man suspected of robbing an Upper East Side pharmacy at gunpoint Friday, and officers tracked him through a decoy pill bottle equipped with a GPS device, NBC 4 New York has learned.
NYPD says the suspect, identified as 45-year-old Scott Kato of Mount Vernon, robbed the pharmacy at Second Avenue and 69th Street at about 1:30 p.m., and fled in a Jeep Compass with cash and pain pills.
The NYPD began stocking city pharmacies with the decoy pill bottles last year in an attempt to crack down on robberies. The bottles look like containers of oxycodone, and even rattle when shaken, but contain a GPS device instead of painkillers.
A tracking signal is emitted when the bottle is separated from its base.
NBC 4 New York has learned that authorities tracked Kato, who is believed to have robbed this pharmacy five times since December 2011, as he fled toward the FDR Drive.
Officers encountered him along a service road; police say he reached for a gun, which is when police fired. Four officers fired their guns, the NYPD said.
He was killed and his gun was recovered, police say.
