Man arrested on suspicion of 7 felonies after Syracuse standoff
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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star
SYRACUSE — Gene Sisco didn’t have time for fear when he saw a gun pointed at him in the Town & Country Pharmacy.
He simply did what the gunman demanded.
“He said, ‘Get out of here, and I mean out of here NOW,’” Sisco said Wednesday, a day after escaping an armed robbery in Syracuse.
The gunman then turned the handgun on the female pharmacist and demanded Oxycontin and Ambien, according to a court document.
The 64-year-old Sisco didn’t see what happened next because he, another customer and two pharmacy employees — all women — headed out the door.
Once outside, Sisco called 911. About a minute later, the pharmacist got out as well, but not before she saw the gunman take some pills.
Later, Sisco talked to law enforcement officers who mentioned how things might have ended differently. He thought about how vulnerable he and the others were as they walked out.
And that’s when he felt himself shaking.
“Thank God nobody got hurt. That’s the main thing.”
On Wednesday, Bruce A. Leazer, 28, of Syracuse, remained in custody of the Otoe County Sheriff’s Office on suspicion of seven felonies, including robbery, false imprisonment, terroristic threats and using a weapon to commit a felony.
The gunman kept law enforcement officers at bay for about 4½ hours Tuesday before they arrested him without a shot fired. They found him face down on the floor, conscious, but incapacitated.
Leazer could be formally charged as soon as Thursday, said Otoe County Attorney David Partsch. But he won’t prosecute the case because of a conflict of interest — one of his deputy prosecutors is married to the pharmacist.
A judge on Wednesday appointed Tecumseh lawyer Steve Mercure as special prosecutor. Mercure is the former Johnson County attorney.
On Wednesday in Syracuse, a community of 1,800 about 30 miles east of Lincoln, people tried to understand what had happened in their brick-paved downtown.
The pharmacy, surrounded by as many as 30 law enforcement officers Tuesday night, was back to business as usual. Owner Lee Rohrs, however, declined to comment.
Several longtime Syracuse residents said they had never even heard of Leazer until the incident. One described him as a loner who hadn’t lived in Syracuse very long.
But Pat Chaney, a bookkeeper at a heating and air conditioning business where Leazer recently worked, described him as “a nice kid, very likable.”
She also said his health wasn’t very good, although she didn’t know exactly what was wrong with him. She wondered if health problems might have played a role in Tuesday’s incident.
The standoff also represented a public safety emergency in a town that disbanded its police department a year ago. The county attorney said the sheriff’s office and Nebraska State Patrol did a fantastic job.
“They showed great judgment in their actions and made sure everybody involved — the citizens of Syracuse, the officers and the suspect — were all safe,” Partsch said.
Sheriff James Gress said his office maintains a substation in Syracuse. Several state patrol troopers live in the community as well.
Deputy Joe Rehrs was working near the high school when he got the first call about the gunman at 3:37 p.m. By the time he got to the pharmacy a minute later, he already saw another deputy on the scene.
Even as they called for backup, the deputies worked to secure the scene and get bystanders out of harm’s way. Within a short time, eight sheriff’s officers, about 20 state troopers — including members of the patrol’s SWAT team — and one state conservation officer were on the scene.
“We were all pleased we got the job done and no one was injured or hurt,” the sheriff said.
During the standoff, the gunman called 911. After they lost phone contact, they tried to communicate with him using a megaphone.
Finally, the patrol used a mobile robot equipped with a camera to safely locate Leazer in the pharmacy. SWAT team members then carefully entered the store and arrested him.
As he was led out, Leazer was on his feet, although he moved slowly and deliberately. He was transported to BryanLGH Medical Center West, where he will be treated, the county attorney said. After his discharge, he will be kept at the state Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln.
After the arrest, investigators recovered a handgun and several open bottles of morphine; Ambien, a sleeping medication; and hydrocodone, a narcotic.
Among those trying to make sense of the incident Wednesday was Abbey Thoms. The 17-year-old high school senior was working in a flower shop next to the pharmacy Tuesday when bedlam erupted.
The pharmacist came into the shop and asked to use her phone.
A sheriff’s deputy told her to lock the front door and stay away from the windows.
Over the next 4½ hours, she waited with employees from a nearby coffee shop as the standoff unfolded. Her cell phone died from all the calls from her parents and text messages from her friends.
“I was scared,” she said. “I was really scared.”
Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.
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