The trial of Jerome Ersland [above] is underway. Ersland is the pharmacist charged with first degree murder for shooting Antwun “Speedy” Parker in the head during a botched robbery attempt in 2009. After Parker was down, Ersland shot him five more times. [Click here for more info]. If confronted with a self-defense situation, when it’s all over, not only should you be tight-lipped until you consult an attorney, you should not lie about what happened.
NewsOK reports:
Earlier Monday, an Oklahoma City police detective testified the pharmacist, Jerome Jay Ersland, repeatedly gave details about fatally shooting the robber that weren’t true.
A defense attorney suggested Ersland mixed up things because he was traumatized. Police detective David Jacobson disagreed.
“He wanted to tell me about it,” Jacobson said. “It didn’t seem like he was that upset about it, in my opinion.”
The detective interviewed Ersland at the police department about 10:30 p.m. May 19, 2009, almost five hours after the shooting inside Reliable Discount Pharmacy. Jurors on Monday saw a 30-minute recording of the interview.
“I did just what I had to do,” he told the detective.
Ersland thinks he did what he had to do. Sure, shooting a robber while an armed robbery was in progress was likely the right thing to do. But the five extra shots at the immobilized perp doesn’t jive with the prosecutor.
Ersland also thought lying about his military service was the right thing to do.
The detective also testified Ersland lied when he claimed he had killed before in combat. Ersland in his statement said that he had post-traumatic stress disorder from being in the Gulf War and that he had killed a lot of people there. He said he dreamed about it every night.
The detective said Ersland’s military records do not show he was in combat.
Lying is a sure way to damage your credibility. Shortly after the shooting, without the benefit of counsel, Ersland made a few other stretches to the truth.
“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 was the only one who fired and Ersland was not injured.
Ersland said he was thrown against a wall, but managed to go for the semiautomatic in his pocket.
Wrong again. The perps never touched Ersland.
“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.
Seriously, the embellishments have got to stop.
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.
If you know you have a security camera, at least watch the video before you spout your mouth off.
“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.
The trial continues…
Damn. It’s like Nixon forgetting that he was recording himself.
This is the kind of person Magoo keeps warning us about.
This guy is off the hook even for a gun loon.
Judge not lest ye be judged.
Wearing a Brazilian bikini over an ugly Hawaiian shirt? What’s up with that? Ersland probably shot Speedy Parker for laughing his ass off. In my opinion, the Fighting Pharmacist deserves prison time for his fashion choices alone. And oh yeah, if anyone is involved in a SD shooting, PLEASE STFU until you talk to a competent attorney. Otherwise, you risk going through the rest of your life as somebody’s involuntary girlfriend.
“If confronted with a self-defense situation, when it’s all over, not only should you be tight-lipped until you consult an attorney…”
You got that a little wrong if we’re talking about the Ersland case.
“If you’ve just committed murder, when it’s all over, not only should you be tight-lipped until you consult an attorney…”
Shame on you for giving the STFU advice using a murderer as an example.
Do you know the difference between “charged with murder” and “convicted of murder?”
Or do you have a magic time machine that allowed you to find out the verdict of the jury before the trial ends?
Well, Blake, I guess I did, huh.
I’ll bet you think the police are you friends, right?
It is reasonable to acknowledge that the occasional violent moron will get held up. Occasionally said moron will take the opportunity to indulge himself. I feel no need to defend him. He is not like me. I like roads without speed limits but that doesn’t mean I’d defend a Nazi.
-D
It’s one thing to defend yourself, but this guy went a overboard. What if the first shot to the head was fatal, then would the other five rounds still count? If his attorney could somehow prove the badguy was already dead or would die from the head shot, then the other shots shouldn’t matter.
I agree STFU is the safe course of action after a shooting. However standing over an unarmed wounded badguy and shooting him to death on video is pretty much impossible to explain away.
Whether or not the first head shot was fatal is irrelevant. A mortally wounded attacker can still present a lethal threat. An attacker, shot in the pinky toe, can immediately cease to be a threat. Once you “perceive” that you are no longer in imminent danger of death or grave bodily harm, your right to defend yourself evaporates.
One of my students attended a CCW class from another school last year. I asked her how it went. She said she learned a lot of good tips, like “If you shoot them, make sure they are dead.” Maybe this guy went to the same school.
Comments are closed.