Bridgton police now believe that Buxton resident Darell Twitty is the man responsible for the armed robbery of a Bridgton pharmacy on Nov. 2. The robbery took place only a few hours before Twitty allegedly robbed a home on Roosevelt Trail in Windham.
In the Bridgton robbery, police say Twitty, 36, entered a RiteAid Pharmacy on Route 302 around 1 p.m., showed the pharmacist his revolver and demanded OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller. Twitty took the drugs and left on foot, police say.
Two hours later, Twitty allegedly broke into a Windham residence on Roosevelt Trail and stole a safe containing valuables.
Twitty was then arrested that night, while walking intoxicated down the centerline of Route 302 in Casco, by Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy John Fournier on routine patrol.
In the gym bag Twitty was carrying, Fournier found several bottles of OxyContin identified as the same stolen from the pharmacy.
Though a “substantial amount” of the stolen OxyContin was recovered in the arrest, Bridgton Police Sargeant Doug Taft suspects Twitty was “not alone” in the pharmacy robbery and expects more arrests soon.
Last Thursday, a similar armed robbery at a pharmacy in Walderboro led to a cross-county chase that ended in the death of suspect Kim David Niedermann. Niedermann, 54, of Cushing, was killed in a shootout with police officers at a Cumberland Farms gas station in Brunswick.
In the Walderboro robbery, the suspect also brandished a gun and demanded prescription painkillers from a pharmacist.
While the crimes are similar, Detective Taft says they appear to be unrelated.
Twitty is being held at the Cumberland County Jail and scheduled in court for his arraignment on Dec. 27.
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