Self defense or murder?

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Self defense or murder?
7
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 12:40am

While I do understand the initial act of self defense here, what he went on to do ...? I certainly can't wrap my head around the conservative types that are calling this guy a "hero."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090529/ap_on_re_us/us_pharmacy_shooting


OKLAHOMA CITY – Confronted by two holdup men, pharmacist Jerome Ersland pulled a gun, shot one of them in the head and chased the other away. Then, in a scene recorded by the drugstore's security camera, he went behind the counter, got another gun, and pumped five more bullets into the wounded teenager as he lay on the floor.


Now Ersland has been charged with first-degree murder in a case that has stirred a furious debate over vigilante justice and self-defense and turned the pharmacist into something of a folk hero.


Ersland, 57, is free on $100,000 bail, courtesy of an anonymous donor. He has won praise from the pharmacy's owner, received an outpouring of cards, letters and checks from supporters, and become the darling of conservative talk radio.


"His adrenaline was going. You're just thinking of survival," said John Paul Hernandez, 60, a retired Defense Department employee who grew up in the neighborhood. "All it was is defending your employee, business and livelihood. If I was in that position and that was me, I probably would have done the same thing."


District Attorney David Prater said Ersland was justified in shooting 16-year-old Antwun Parker once in the head, but not in firing the additional shots into his belly. The prosecutor said the teenager was unconscious, unarmed, lying on his back and posing no threat when Ersland fired what the medical examiner said were the fatal shots.


Anthony Douglas, president of the Oklahoma chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called it an "execution-style murder" and praised the district attorney for bringing charges. Ersland is white; the two suspects were black.


Parker's parents also expressed relief that Ersland faces a criminal charge.


"He didn't have to shoot my baby like that," Parker's mother, Cleta Jennings, told TV station KOCO.


But many of those who have seen the video of the May 19 robbery attempt at Reliable Discount Pharmacy have concluded the teenager in the ski mask got what he deserved.


Mark Shannon, who runs a conservative talk show on Oklahoma City's KTOK, said callers have jammed his lines this week in support of Ersland, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel who wears a back brace on the job and told reporters he is a disabled veteran of the Gulf War.


"There is no gray area," Shannon said. One caller "said he should have put all the shots in the head."


Don Spencer, a 49-year-old National Rifle Association member who lives in the small town of Meridian, 40 miles north of Oklahoma City, said the pharmacist did the right thing: "You shoot more than enough to make sure the threat has been removed."


Barbara Bergman, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, likened the public reaction to that of the case of Bernard Goetz, the New Yorker who shot four teenagers he said were trying to rob him when they asked for $5 on a subway in 1984.


Goetz was cleared of attempted murder and assault but convicted of illegal gun possession and served 8 1/2 months in jail.


Bergman said those who claim they used deadly force in self-defense have to show they were "in reasonable fear of serious bodily injury."


The pharmacy is in a crime-ridden section of south Oklahoma City and had been robbed before.


The video shows two men bursting in, one of them pointing a gun at Ersland and two women working with the druggist behind the counter. Ersland fires a pistol, driving the gunman from the store and hitting Parker in the head as he puts on a ski mask.


Ersland chases the second man outside, then goes back inside, walks behind the counter with his back to Parker, gets a second handgun and opens fire.

Irven Box, Ersland's attorney, noted the outpouring of support for the pharmacist, including $2,000 in donations, and said: "I feel very good 12 people would not determine he committed murder in the first degree."

Under Oklahoma's "Make My Day Law" — passed in the late 1980s and named for one of Clint Eastwood's most famous movie lines — people can use deadly force when they feel threatened by an intruder inside their homes. In 2006, Oklahoma's "Stand Your Ground Law" extended that to anywhere a citizen has the right to be, such as a car or office.

"It's a 'Make-My-Day' case," Box said. "This guy came in, your money or your life. Mr. Ersland said, `You're not taking my life.'" The gunman "forfeited his life."

Box said that another person might have reacted differently, but he asked: "When do you turn off that adrenaline switch? When do you think you're safe? I think that's going to be the ultimate issue."

If convicted, Ersland could be sentenced to life in prison with or without parole, or receive the death penalty.

Jevontia Ingram, the 14-year-old boy accused of wielding the gun in the robbery, was arrested Thursday. The district attorney on Friday filed a first-degree murder charge against him, as well as against a man accused of being the getaway driver, and another man suspected of helping talk the teens into the crime.

The charges accuse all three of sharing responsibility for Parker's shooting death.



iVillage Member
Registered: 02-05-2009
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 8:39am

To me, it seems kinda obvious the guy is a nut.

Avatar for claddagh49
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2004
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 9:35am
I agree, one non fatal shot could have been self defense, what he did, if
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2009
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 10:36am

Just to clarify, the one who was killed was 16, the friend that got away was 14.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-05-2009
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 10:51am

Just to clarify, the one who was killed was 16, the friend that got away was 14.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2009
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 11:06am

Thanks for the clarification.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 11:37am

More.........
Three charged in Oklahoma City drug store slaying
ROBBERYDA reversed his decision after further research, he said

http://newsok.com/three-charged-in-slaying/article/3373798

Three robbery suspects were accused Friday in a first-degree murder charge of responsibility for the fatal drug store shooting of an alleged accomplice. Police report the youngest, a 14-year-old boy, confessed his involvement in the heist.

The three are charged with murder even though a pharmacist fired the fatal shots that killed Antwun "Speedy” Parker, 16, on May 19 at the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in south Oklahoma City.

They will be prosecuted separately from the pharmacist, Jerome Jay Ersland, who is accused in an earlier first-degree murder charge of going too far, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said.

The new charge against Jevontia Ingram, 14, Emanuel Dewayne Mitchell, 31, and Anthony Devale Morrison, 43, is the latest twist in the case. All are from Oklahoma City.

They are not accused of firing any shots themselves. The two adults allegedly stayed outside.

The three are charged under Oklahoma’s felony murder law, which says a robber, kidnapper, rapist, drug trafficker or certain other felons can be guilty of first-degree murder if someone dies as a result of the crime even if the death wasn’t intentional.

Prater on Wednesday said, "Because of the acts of the defendant we’ve charged in this case, Mr. Ersland, I don’t feel we’d be justified in filing a felony murder charge against the other robber in the case.” Prater said Friday he reversed his position after further legal research. He said no one pressured him to file the new murder case.

Ingram and Mitchell have been arrested. Police Friday were searching for Morrison. All three also are charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery. The two men are charged with possession of a gun after a felony conviction. Both men have been in prison for robbery and assault.

The boy told police he and his friend, Parker, attempted the robbery after Mitchell and Morrison asked for their help, a police detective reported in an affidavit attached to the charge. The boy said the two men contacted him May 19.

Ingram described Morrison as his mother’s friend and Mitchell as Morrison’s cousin. Ingram told police his mother’s friend gave him a gun with no bullets, clothes to wear during the robbery and "advised them what to demand inside the store,” according to the detective’s affidavit.

Ingram said Mitchell drove him and Parker to the pharmacy in a Honda stolen two days before. He said Morrison and Morrison’s girlfriend were in another Honda parked outside.

According to the court affidavit, "Ingram stated during the robbery a male employee shot two times towards him and Parker and he ran out of the pharmacy. Ingram stated he did not know Parker had been shot until later in the evening. Ingram stated as he ran from the store, the male employee chased after him and fired approximately three shots at him. Ingram stated Morrison drove away and Ingram continued to run.”

He said the plan had been for his mother’s friend to follow Mitchell after the robbery then pick him, Mitchell and Parker up so they could leave behind the stolen car. He said Mitchell did drive up as he ran from the pharmacy but that Mitchell jumped out of the stolen car. The boy said he threw the gun in the stolen Honda’s back seat and saw Mitchell return to the car and grab the gun.

Mitchell was arrested after the robbery. The boy was arrested Thursday.

Photobucket

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-05-2009
Sat, 05-30-2009 - 11:39am

Yeah, I read that at least one of them had a gun.