Officers nab suspect in pharmacy robbery

An off-road car chase turned foot race ended when authorities apprehended a robbery suspect near Lybeck’s Dyke early Thursday afternoon.

Jeremy Walbridge, 30, of Kalispell is in custody at the Flathead County Detention Center after he allegedly robbed Evergreen Pharmacy at knifepoint Thursday.

 Wearing a ski mask, Walbridge allegedly threatened the pharmacist and demanded Oxycontin. After giving the man the drug, the pharmacist followed the suspect out of the pharmacy and watched him jump into a brown Ford truck and peel away.

Kalispell police and Flathead County sheriff’s deputies pursued the truck along Evergreen Drive and across a field. The suspect and an unidentified woman ditched the vehicle near Lybeck’s Dyke and continued on foot. Officers chased them down and apprehended the two. Walbridge was taken into custody and his female passenger was detained, interviewed and released.

Walbridge was recently named as a suspect in a counterfeiting investigation, but has yet to be formally charged. During the course of the investigation, he was detained at the Flathead County Detention center on a probation hold, but was released when the hold expired at 11 p.m. Wednesday.

This is the fourth time Walbridge has been arrested since Nov. 16 of this year. He also had a hearing for revocation of a suspended sentence on Thursday, but failed to appear for the hearing. 

The Evergreen pharmacy was recently burglarized on Nov. 30.