Posted on 06/02/2009 2:35:20 PM PDT by FourPeas
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma City pharmacist charged with murder in the shooting death of a teenage would-be robber defended himself on national television Monday night.
Jerome Ersland appeared on the O'Reilly Factor on Fox News with his attorney Irven Box.
Ersland was charged with murder last week after he shot back at two would-be robbers on May 19 at a south Oklahoma City pharmacy. Prosecutors say Ersland exceeded his legal authority to defend himself by shooting 16-year-old Antwun Parker five times after a first shot rendered the teen unconscious.
In his TV appearance last night, Ersland said the teen was still a threat when he fired the five fatal rounds.
"I came back in store because I was working with two ladies and I thought the person laying on the floor had shot the younger lady Megan because the mother was yelling Megan, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Ersland said during the interview. "I went up to him, and he seemed to be just dazed, and he started talking to me, and he started turning to the right. I'm crippled. ... I thought I was going to get killed in the next few seconds."
I saw Ersland on Fox last night. He didn’t come across very well. His attorney needs to gag him for the time being. I’d hate to seem him get convicted of anything.
I was afraid of that. When I heard him on the Cam’s show on NRA.com he didn’t come across well either.
Note that the perp shot is out of the video fields of view and there is NO audio. The pharmacist never checked the shot perp for a weapon. The initially shot perp could have easily come back to life and been a threat again. Not now though.
The MSM, predictably, decided to go with an abbreviated report which left out certain irrelevant details. Dr. Ersland’s version has remained consistent from the start: the perp was moving in a way he deemed threatening.
He should have done like Uncle Ned in South Park, he should have just yelled, “It’s comin’ right for us!!!” Then he would have been safe.
I’ll say what I did back when I first heard of the charges against this pharmacist. Murder One requires the presence of pre-meditation. I don’t know how you define it premeditated to respond to an act of violence against your own person or your fellow workers. And if just moments before you were involved in a confrontation with armed assailants, it’s preposterous to blame this man for being extremely edgy.
The justice system has bent over backwards to protect the perpetrators of crime. To me that’s just ass backwards.
If some guy comes at me with a gun, or is one person of persons who come at me at least one with a gun, I consider them all to be prime targets. I’m not going to ask, or try to determine for myself if each one is armed. If one is, they all are.
The more gang members and kids in general that realize what the outcomes will be if they commit crimes of violence, the fewer crimes of violence there will be.
I don’t shed one tear for this kid. He gambled and lost.
Speaking as a licensed attorney in Oklahoma. Box is a very good criminal trial attorney. That being said, allowing his client to go on O’Reilly serves only his interest in promoting himself not his client. His client appears to not be a very good witness on his own behalf, and putting him out there gives the DA ammunition through possibly inconsistent statements.
"I feared for my life" !
it is 24 carat Gold
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If you shoot the guy while he's in your house or coming toward you as a threat then you're ok. If however the guy runs and you follow him then shoot you're cooked. The same with putting more slugs into the guy once the threat has been ended. That's the law, like it or not.
I’m not sure that IS the law in Oklahoma.
Hindsight is 20-20, but in a similar situation, just keep yelling “Put the gun down or I’ll Shoot” in between each round that you fire.
And that right there is the point of contention. Ersland says the perp was continuing to be a threat. Prosecutor says not. Video is inconclusive (it doesn't show the perp). Ersland was there, Prosecutor was not.
Who ya gonna believe?
A premeditated act only requires the perpetrator to reflect on what he is doing and decide to do it. In otherwords, once the threat was removed if he decided to shoot the perp, it was premeditated. That being said, I think the DA will have a hard time getting a conviction. As it has been said, you cannot see the perp on the video so there is no way to refute the pharmicist.Plus, this is Oklahoma and people will be sympatheitic to him.
On the DA's side of the argument, there is enough in the video to require him to bring the case. All he is saying is there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. A jury will decide whether a crime actually was committed. If he had not brought the charges, the African-American community in Oklahoma would have had a legitimate beef IMHO.
From the video it looks bad for the guy speficically for the time it took him to get the second weapon. That shows coherent thought. and that, in the law, is murder.
And that's why I just can't seem to get worked up over whether Erlsand might have crossed the line a little bit. I am so sick and tired of thug culture and street criminals, that, as I said on another thread, Erlsand could've cut the dead punk's head off and placed it on a pike in front of his store and I still wouldn't think he did anything wrong.
If you ask me, these "gangstas" with their self-inflated sense of entitlement mixed with a penchant for brutal, senseless violence are a greater threat to the American way of life than Islamic terrorists and should be treated as such.
Agree. If the kid had been home studying and not out trying to rob someone, he’d be alive today. To blame the victim is ridiculous. To prosecute the victim is criminal, but that’s where our gubmint is these days.
Why is it, that the "African-American" community selects the dregs of their race, as their "hills to die on"?
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