By MINDY KEPFIELD

Staff writer

A man dropped off at Lannings Pharmacy by sheriff’s deputies became so belligerent with staff they had to call them to remove him from a bench in front of the store.

The scene happened as visitors to the pharmacy were having photos of their children taken with the Easter bunny.

“The timing was not good,” sheriff Robert Craft said, adding sheriff’s deputies did not know at the time the man would be a problem.

Craft said the unnamed man was picked up on US-77 by deputy Aaron Christner who dropped him off in front of the pharmacy because he said he was diabetic and needed syringes.

“There was no indication he was a problem,” he said. “He apparently was just trying to get medical supplies.”

Craft said deputies don’t normally give people a ride to town, but the man requested medical help.

Staff at the store called sheriff’s office after he became angry and began knocking items off shelves in front of customers.

Christner asked dispatchers if Marion city officer Duane McCarty was available and then asked undersheriff Dave Huntley to meet him back at Lannings.

“I kind of want an explanation as to why two officers thought it was a good idea to drop off a guy who was clearly on drugs in front of a pharmacy,” pharmacist James Meyer said.

Meyer told Huntley the man was “clearly intoxicated and on drugs,” and was not welcome at the store.

He said the pharmacy does not sell syringes to customers who do not have a prescription for insulin.

When they would not sell syringes to the man, he became hostile, swearing at staff and batting merchandise off shelves, he said.

“He came in here harassing me and my staff and he is not welcome here,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of little kids in here.”

Huntley said the man told him he wanted a pharmacy, but they would remove him from the bench in front of the store.

“Somehow or other we’ll get him out of here,” Huntley said.

Deputies dropped the man off at a service station on near US-56 and McPherson later that afternoon.

Craft said he was on his way to Great Bend.

“There was clearly a history with him somewhere,” he said.