Monday, 30 May 2011

Self-defence or murder? Outrage as pharmacist Jerome Ersland who shot 16-year-old trying to rob his shop gets life sentence


If you enter a store with a gun to commit a crime of armed robbery,whatever happens to you after you cross that line is well deserved.

That pharmacist is a hero and that 16 year old deserved to doe!

Daily Mail

A controversial decision to send a pharmacist to jail for life for shooting dead a young man who tried to rob his store has caused a storm of protest.
Jerome Ersland was given a life sentence for the first-degree murder of 16-year-old Antwun Parker at an Oklahoma court last week.

The 59-year-old pharmacist shot the youngster six times during an attempted armed robbery in 2009, leading jurors to decide he had acted beyond the limits of self defence.

Dramatic CCTV footage from May 19 2009 shows Antwun Parker and an accomplice running into the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in south Oklahoma City and pointing a gun directly at Mr Ersland.


The pharmacist, who was once an Air Force lieutenant colonel, can then be seen reaching for a pistol of his own before firing at the two young men, with one of the shots hitting Parker to the ground.



After chasing the accomplice from the store, Ersland then gets a second gun before shooting Parker another five times, almost a minute after he fired the first gunshot.

In court, Mr Ersland's attorneys insisted their client had acted in self-defence.

More here