VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Investigators said they arrested two men shortly after an armed robbery was reported at a CVS Pharmacy near Orange City Monday.
According to investigators, a 911 caller from the pharmacy reported that two masked men believed to have a gun had robbed the pharmacy shortly before 3 a.m.
Deputies arrived and spotted two men running through a shopping center parking lot on Enterprise Road, investigators said.
According to investigators, deputies chased the two men on foot. They said the men were dressed in black and had clothing covering their faces.
Deputies were able to catch the men behind a Burger King and found a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and pair of gloves nearby, investigators said.
Investigators said a woman driving through the area saw the men run by and spotted a white CVS money bag on the ground outside the store.
According to investigators, surveillance footage from the store shows the two men passing the gun back and forth to each other as they forced employees to the front of the store and ordered them to empty the cash registers.
Deputies arrested Stanley Valentin, 19, and Malcolm Ward, 22. Both men are from Orlando.
According to sheriff's officials, during questioning both men admitted to robbing the store, and implicated an accomplice, Javier Farrar II, 20, who they said helped plan the robbery and drove them to the pharmacy. Deputies apprehended Farrar at his Orlando residence.
According to investigators, Farrar and the vehicle were gone when the two men ran out of the CVS pharmacy.
Investigators said that after extensive questioning, Valentin and Ward confessed to seven robberies in the past two weeks in Orange, Osceola and Polk counties, including four CVS stores, one Walgreens pharmacy and a Red Lobster restaurant.
Valentin and Ward are each charged with armed robbery, kidnapping, use or display of a firearm during commission of a felony and resisting an officer without violence. Both were booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach on $60,500 bond.
Investigators have not said what charges, if any, Farrar faces.
WFTV
