Posted on 07/30/2009 5:10:28 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
A judge said Wednesday she’ll consider allowing the televising of court proceedings involving a druggist charged with murder.
Three television stations are seeking permission from Oklahoma County District Judge Tammy Bass-LeSure to televise the pharmacist’s case, including "the preliminary hearing and any resulting jury trial.” The judge told The Oklahoman she will consider the request.
"In this case, which is one generating an immense amount of public interest, it is especially appropriate to permit the public to observe court proceedings,” said attorneys for Oklahoma City stations KWTV-9 and KFOR-4 and Tulsa station KOTV-6.
Jerome Jay Ersland fatally shot a robber May 19 at the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in Oklahoma City. Prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder. Killed was Antwun "Speedy” Parker, 16.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...
This nation needs an "Open Season Doctrine", where when one pulls a gun on people with the intent to kill, they lose all rights, and it is now open season on them.
He is a fake war “hero”.
“Hours after the robbery, Ersland told police he suffers PTSD “from being in the Gulf War,” a detective reported.
“He said, ‘I killed a lot of people there, but I had to do it. I dream about it every night.’ Ersland said he got hurt there (Gulf War) and that was why he was wearing the medical back and front brace,” the detective reported.
The detective quoted Ersland as saying, “So, I have killed a number of people with a .50-caliber” and “I was a platoon leader from Fort Bragg.” The detective reported Ersland said he was in the Army until he got hurt and then the Air Force let him join because there was a high demand for pharmacists.
Ersland left the Army in February 1989, well before the Gulf War, records show. His first assignment after joining the Air Force was the Altus Air Force Base hospital.”
“Instead, Jerome Jay Ers-land spent the war in 1991 as the pharmacy chief at the military hospital at Altus Air Force Base in southwestern Oklahoma, records show.”
ALMOST EVERYTHING THE GUY SAYS BELOW ARE LIES. The robbers had one gun and never fired a shot, he was never in the war, etc, etc.
Here are some of his earlier claims, people forget that he claimed to have been wounded in a desperate shootout and was wearing a bandage over the wound until the police made clear that he was the only one that had fired a gun. When you watch the video you realize that the guy is totally fantasizing and making it up up and lying.
Throw these claims in with his phony war hero stuff and you have a real nutcase.
>The robbers began shooting at him, with one bullet grazing him on the arm, he said he heard another round whiz past his ear.
Ersland recalled: “All of a sudden, they started shooting. They were attempting to kill me, but they didn’t know I had a gun. They said, ‘You’re gonna die.’ That’s when one of them shot at me, and that’s when he got my hand.”
Ersland grabbed the semi-automatic Kel-Tec .380 in his pocket.
“And that’s when I started defending myself,” he said. “The first shot got him in the head, and that slowed him down so I could get my other gun.”
Ersland also kept a much larger pistol in a nearby drawer, which he was able to retrieve, a Taurus Judge revolver. At that point, the second robber took off. However, the other robber was now getting up off of the floor, despite the head wound.
Ersland emptied his clip into the chest of the wounded robber, who turned out to be 16-year-old Antwun Parker.
“I went after the other guy, but he was real fast and I’m crippled,” said Ersland. Once outside, he saw a third black male sitting in a car with what appeared to be a shotgun.
Ersland said: “I pulled out my ‘Judge’ and pointed it right between his eyes and he floored it.”
>””All of a sudden, they started shooting,” he said. “They were attempting to kill me, but they didn’t know I had a gun. They said, ‘You’re gonna die.’ That’s when one of them shot at me, and that’s when he got my hand.”
Ersland said he was thrown against a wall, but managed to go for the semiautomatic in his pocket.
“And that’s when I started defending myself,” he said. “The first shot got him in the head, and that slowed him down so I could get my other gun.”
But as one robber hit the floor, Ersland said, a bullet from the other robber whizzed past his ear.
The pharmacist said he then got his second gun from a nearby drawer, a Taurus “Judge.”
After he had the big gun, Ersland said, the second robber ran.
But as he started to chase after the second robber, Ersland said, he looked back to see the 16-year-old he had shot in the head getting up again. Ersland said he then emptied the Kel-Tec .380 into the boy’s chest as he kept going after the second robber.
“I went after the other guy, but he was real fast and I’m crippled,” Ersland said.
Outside the pharmacy, he said he saw what he thought was a third black male in a car with the engine running and reaching for what appeared to be a shotgun.
“I pulled out my ‘Judge’ and pointed it right between his eyes and he floored it,” Ersland said.
Nutcase or not, the video clearly shows he was the victim and was targeted by the perps for a violent attack. And just because “only one” perp had a handgun upon post-event analysis, does not mean that he should have assumed at the time that only one person had a gun. If 2 thugs walk into the store clearly working together and one has a gun, ASSUME BOTH HAVE GUNS!!!! To not do so is idiocy.
What makes this story interesting and incredibly fascinating isn’t that yet another store clerk shot a robber, but instead what a nut case the guy turns out to be.
This guy is way off the charts for nutcases and that is a story worth talking about, veterans especially get a kick out of his war stories.
After you watch the video his description of his heroics and dodging bullets, hand to hand, having to bandage a bullet wound on his arm etc. are a crack up.
If it had been just a simple shooting then he would have been seen as simply a brave man protecting his business, but not this guy, he has some serious issues and they are the real story here.
You are correct that Mr. Ersland is a liar and a braggart. Fortunately, that has no bearing on the fact that he was the victim of a violent crime and shot a person in self defense.
What happened after the 1st shot is up for speculation, but since no video exists of the perp on the floor then I have to give the benefit of the doubt to the victim, Mr. Ersland, as I would anyone who had just experienced an armed robbery.
The dead man and his accomplice initiated the violent exchange, in Ersland’s own business. That’s the real story here. How you can defend such sludge is astounding.
The autopsy has been completed and the coroner says that the bullet split in three parts and that the portion that entered the brain left him unconscious, and said that his position when killed was on his back with arms spread and palms face up.
Mixed with the casual lack of concern by Ersland about a threat from the boy once he was down that is seen in the film, it is strong evidence that the boy was indeed unconscious.
Watch the video I linked to above for some more information and to see the drugstore video.
If you are going to lie, it sure makes it hard to take you seriously.
http://krmg.com/blogs/the_krmg_morning_news_blog/2009/05/video-okc-pharmacist-shoots-ki.html
I would suggest you two take a very good look at the explained video from the two angles that are presented. As an added reminder, no one is disputing the first initial shot from the revolver.
Nowhere in the video does it show the robber on the floor. The burden of proof is on the state to demonstrate that he wasn’t a threat, not on the druggist. In the heat of the moment even a normally rational person could assume the perp to be a threat if he was indeed moving at all. The perp being unconcous is pure speculation from a DA and media that has already got this man convicted in their minds.
Also, the druggist had no way to know if the perp was armed or not. A reasonable person would assume (almost always correctly) that all participants in an armed robbery would be armed.
Everything you said in your post is correct except if the robber was such a threat, it would be strange for the druggist to turn his back to him as he walked by.
In the heat of the moment, a defender would certainly do all they could to stay alive at the moment. Too bad the druggist took the time to take out keys and unlock a drawer to change out firearms.
Forgetting the druggist for the time being, every instructor I had ever had made sure the class understood “you shoot until the threat is over”. I hope everyone who reads this post understands it’s important to stay alive and unhurt. It’s important to stay out of jail. It’s important to clear out of the risk of financial ruin.
You shoot until the threat is over. You might have to shoot the guy to the ground. You might be lucky one shot does the job. You don’t shoot twice and then evaluate. Let’s try it again. “You shoot until the threat is over”.
I don’t know what the situation is in OKC, but in Tulsa it would be pretty hard to get cameras and such in there. Most courts are not set up well for electronics in general.
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