Knife-wielding man arrested in attempted robbery of a North Charleston Rite Aid

A man who drove his neighbor to a North Charleston Rite Aid told police he thought the man needed poison ivy cream.

Instead, the man robbed the drug store at knifepoint.

Marion Garner Mitchum, 40, entered a Rite Aid at 1195 Remount Road at 2:45 p.m. Monday, jumped over the pharmacy counter and demanded Oxycontin and Oxycodone pills, a North Charleston Police Department incident report said.

Mitchum was armed with a camouflage folding knife, according to the report.

Two pharmacists told Mitchum they didn’t have access to the pills, prompting the man to search the pharmacy himself, the report said.

Unsuccessful, Mitchum jumped back over the counter. A customer then picked up a walking stick and swung it at the man, the report said.

Mitchum fled the store and got into a green Ford Explorer driven by another man, the report said.

Witnesses managed to get the Explorer’s license plate number before the vehicle made a left turn on North Rhett Avenue and drove away, the report said.

Officers found the Explorer and the vehicle’s owner, Samuel Lockwood, at a home on Allison Drive in Hanahan.

Lockwood told police he gave Mitchum, who is his neighbor, a ride to CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid to look for poison ivy cream.

While at Rite Aid, Lockwood noticed the man running back to the vehicle, but Mitchum said his ex-wife was in the store giving him a hard time and they had to leave, the report said.

Police arrested Mitchum, and surveillance video confirmed he was the man who attempted to rob the store, the report said.

Officers said they don’t think Mitchum is connected to a number of other robberies at area pharmacies in recent months, Capt. Scott Deckard said.

Mitchum is being held at the Cannon Detention Center.

Reach Christina Elmore at 937-5908 or at Twitter.com/celmorePC.