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A quiet Long Island man and his wife were hauled out of their house in handcuffs Wednesday and being questioned in the cold-blooded massacre of four people at a local pharmacy.
David Laffer and Melinda Brady were removed from the Medford, L.I., home after heavily-armed officers from the Suffolk County Police stormed the house. Neither Laffer, 33, nor Brady, believed to be 29, have been charged.
But a close friend of Brady's told The Daily News that Brady had a prescription pain pill habit and that Laffer recently lost his job and health care coverage.
"This past weekend Melinda was trying to find out if anyone knew what hospital she can go to to get a scrip for pain pills," Joanna Martino said.
The massacre at Haven Drugs in Medford happened on Sunday.
The potential break in the case capped an intensive three-day manhunt for the murderous maniac.
"I just want to take a good look at him," Daniel Taccetta, brother of shooting victim Jamie Taccetta, said of Laffer when he arrived at a Suffolk County Police station. "We want justice. The lethal injection would be too quick for him. He should rot in solitary confinement."
Laffer and Brady lived in his mother's house. His neighbors were stunned by the development.
"I've known David since he was a child," said a weeping Ziada Ayala, a neighbor and family friend of 40 years. "He was just a nice quiet boy."
Peter Spano was helping a pal do housework next door when cops stormed the house.
"They used a battering ram on the door and less than two minutes later they walked a young man out," Spano said. "He walked right by me. He was cuffed behind his back."
Laffer, Spano said, "looked withdrawn, like a skull."
"He looked like death," he said. "He looked like there was nothing in him. He didn't say a word."
In several Internet postings, Laffer claimed to have served in an Army military intelligence unit in The Bronx under Ronald Bucca, a heroic fire marshal who was killed on 9/11.
"He always talked about the FBI," Ayala said.
But in a Daily News wedding announcement that appeared in January 2009, Laffer was described as working "in logistics shipping and receiving."
Laffer, according to the announcement, was also a devoted Islanders fan whose proposal to Brady was shown on the large TV screens in the arena.
It also appears that Laffer played goalie on a local hockey team. On his Facebook page, he listed the Springfield XD - a semi-automatic handgun - as one of his activities.
Laffer and Brady were nabbed after dozens of shaken Medford residents held a vigil outside the drug store turned kill zone.
Many placed red roses at the door of the shuttered store as a Catholic priest delivered a prayer for the dead.
"It's unbelievable to think anything like this can happen in our community," said Jim Gubitosi, 59, who was among the 30 or so visitors paying their respects. "It's the only thing anyone is thinking about."
Cops say the killer methodically shot two store employees, pharmacist Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and store clerk Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue.
He also shot two customers - Taccetta, 33, of Springfield and Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford - before walking out with a knapsack full of prescription drugs, police said.
Brianna Cirillo, 19, held a photo of her slain friend, Mejia.
"She had her whole life in front of her," she said. "He had no remorse. It's not fair for any of these families."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...l#ixzz1Q2BSx900
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