A New Jersey pharmacist who is also an Army reservist pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at a would-be robber as he chased him from his store, authorities said. Police said it did not appear any shots hit the fleeing holdup man, who had demanded narcotic painkillers.

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"I'm no hero, but I thought, `Either him or I,"' John Agyemang, who opened Jolin's Pharmacy in the southern New Jersey town of Winslow about three months ago, told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia.

In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after the attempted holdup, the pharmacist said he had spotted a gun on the robber, who was shown in surveillance video wearing a blue dress, long wig and black sneakers.

The surveillance footage released by police showed the stocky man pacing nervously in front of Agyemang's counter, the pharmacist sticking out his hand as if he were trying to hold him off, then retreating backward into an office a few steps away before disappearing from view.

Cameras also caught the pharmacist with his gun drawn going after the robber, said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor's office, but that footage was not made public because of the ongoing investigation. Laughlin said the portion that was released was distributed solely to get the public's help in identifying the suspect. No camera, he said, captured the actual shooting outdoors.

The pharmacist told investigators that he believed he saw the butt of a gun in the would-be robber's fanny pack.

 

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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