Pharmacist Faces 1st Degree Murder Charge

Pharmacist Jerome Ersland of Chickasha has been charged with 1st degree murder in the recent shooting death of an armed robber inside an Oklahoma City pharmacy.

District Attorney David Prater filed the charge after reviewing police reports and, apparently, a videotape from cameras that captured the entire incident.

The videotape, released to the news media by Prater this afternoon, is about 27 seconds long. After Ersland's initital shot at the robbers, one of whom clearly has a pistol in his hand, Ersland pursues the robber with the pistol to the door. The second robber has fallen to the floor, apparently hit by Ersland's shot. The videotape shows Ersland reentering the store, then walking behind the counter, down an aisle way, opening a drawer, removing a pistol, then walking back to the wounded robber, leaning over and shooting him repeatedly. The robber isn't visible in the released videotape, but Ersland firing is visible. Ersland then returns to the counter and calls police.

Prater said Wednesday that the 57-year-old Ersland was justified in shooting Antwun Parker once in the head on May 19. But Prater says Ersland went too far when he shot Parker five more times in the abdomen while Parker lay unconscious on the floor. Ersland's attorney — Irven Box — says Ersland was protecting himself and two women inside the pharmacy.

The charge alleges Ersland repeatedly shot Parker, 16, while Parker was semi-conscious, incapacitated and prone on the floor. Ersland’s account of the incident doesn’t match the video or the evidence collected at the scene, Oklahoma City Police Detective David Jacobson wrote in his affidavit.

Parker was shot once in the head and five times in the stomach area. The autopsy found Parker was still alive after the head shot and died from the stomach wounds. Apparently, it is the stomach wounds, inflicted after the shot to the head, the prompted the filing of the murder charge.

Ersland, holder of a license to carry a concealed firearm, says he acted in self defense when he shot Parker to stop the armed robbery attempt.

Ersland, a disabled veteran, said two armed men in ski masks threatened him and two other employees when they burst into Reliable Discount Pharmacy in south Oklahoma City.

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