Alleged Long Island Drug Store Killer Laffer Sought Pain Pills for Wife

David Laffer's alleged assault on a Long Island, N.Y. pharmacy last weekend was partially motivated by his desire to support his wife's prescription painkiller habit, witnesses said.

Laffer stands accused of shooting down four people in a Haven Drugs in the Long Island town of Medford, and authorities said that more than 11,000 hydrocodone pills were missing after he left. Records show that he had filled prescriptions at the store in the past. Laffer's wife, Melinda Brady, has come forward and said the pills were for her.

He was doing it because he lost his job and I was sick, she said. I'm sorry that he did all of this.

The robbery appears to have been precipitated by Laffer losing his job and his health insurance, which deprived Brady of the pills she had come to rely upon.

This past Saturday, she was calling my friends, looking for a place to get pills because she didn't have any [health] coverage anymore, said a friend, Joanne Martino. She was saying frantically, 'I need my pills! I need my pills!' She was acting like a complete drug addict,