Was a pharmacist justified in shooting an unarmed robber 6 times?

Here are the facts: an Oklahoma City pharmacy was recently held up by two black teens. One teen held a gun on pharmacy employees while the other teen attempted to walk behind the counter presumably to steal drugs.

The pharmacist, Jerome Ersley who underwent spinal surgery 6 weeks ago, grabbed a loaded firearm from behind the counter and opened fire hitting the unarmed robber once in the head.

Ersley then chased the armed thug out the door and down the sidewalk, firing twice but missing both times. Ersley returned to the pharmacy where video surveillance footage shows him either reloading his weapon or retrieving another gun before standing over the wounded robber and shooting him five more times, killing him instantly.

Ersley is currently out on $100,000 bond. He appeared on The O’Reilly Factor last night to say he finished off the unarmed teen because he (Ersley) was disabled and he was afraid the boy would get up off the floor and kill him. Ersley said the would-be thief tried to speak to him as he pumped five more bullets into his body.

Question: Was Ersley justified in killing the thug?

Coo Coo Bananas

He was already down! Plus 5 more shots?! COME THE F*CK ON!!
Mspeng

No he’s not justified in shooting that boy. If he thought he was in such danger of him coming back for him, he could have been armed and ready…or how about calling the police. That sounds like a logical solution. He’s nothing but a trigger happy fool.
thundercat

Why is that a question? Was he justified..Hellz no! That was cold blooded murder. The shot to stop him was justified. The 5 subsequent shots was overkill, and the boy was trying to talk to him before he shot him the other times. WTF! Then he uses the lame excuse that he was disabled…He wasn’t too disabled when he ran after the one that got away. Give me a break. If he doesnt go to jail, my faith in the justice system is forever gone!
http://myspace.com/msjaxson1920 smurfette1920

I can’t see the video but sounds like damn overkill to me. Definitely unjustified. If he gets off criminally I would definitely be on his arse in a civil suit.
goat76

I bet he won’t rob anybody else!!!!!!!
Daisy

LOL@Goat I knew somebody was going to say that..lol
lovezoe

It’s a hard one. I saw O’Rielley on Friday and I saw the video, it could have been adrenaline or just plain hatefulness. He could have kicked the gun away, picked up the gun, he chose to do neither. I will love to see how this play out in court.
Coo Coo Bananas

@Lovezoe.. what gun? Prosecutors said he was unarmed.
goat76

I couldn’t hold it Daisy……..Thats the chance you take when your job is robbing people…..plenty of store owner/workers have been gunned down for the lil change in the cash registers…..
goat76

@Coo Coo……The other one was armed….
http://myspace.com/dannyblaq dblaq

Cops do it all the time, why shouldn’t civilians be able to do the same???
masonmom

they shouldnt of been robbing em in the first dmn place! im justifying ALL my shots if somebody trying to rob me! mind ur business and ill mind mine! rat-a-tat-tat on dat azz!
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

WOW! I feel Goat completely however….

Buddy was already down and unconscious. There clearly wasn’t ANY need to shoot him five more times. Damn! And to think he was just a kid. Did they say he was 16 yrs old?
My heart goes out to his parents. How is that for compassion? Ha!
Coo Coo Bananas

@ Goat. Exactly, the other one. But this dude was already unconscious & unarmed laying the floor. Lovezoe said the pharmacist should’ve kicked the gun away or pick it up, but there was no gun. HE WAS UNARMED!
goat76

@Coo Coo…….Yeah he didn’t have a gun….but guess what..he was apart of an armed robbery…so he might as well had one….If they had killed the clerk, they both would’ve been charged…..And the one that got away could be charged with his homie’s death……..

Thou shall not Steal
Naima

Is there a robbers ettique I don’t know about. Thats the chance to take when you stick someone up.
goat76

And I’m not taking up for the Pharmacist….I really don’t care….but they shouldn’t have been trying to ROB people…..
Coo Coo Bananas

@ Goat. Again, he was already unconscious with no gun in sight. After the first shot, there was no need for 5 extra ones. Excessive in my book.
Kat

i think it was pretty excessive…..now watch him get off!
kcicero

Goat I am in complete concurrence. Say I don’t have compassion but I’m tired of innocent people getting killed by these trigger happy thugs. You want to live the life of a gangsta you die like a gangsta.

Maybe that will serve as a deterrence for other would be robbers. Work for a living and stop trying to live a quick life or you die quick.
kcicero

And I hope he does get off. I’m at the point now where I feel all of these little thugs running around with guns and knives ought to be put on an island and allowed to take each other out…

Sorry for the harshness but Jackie Frazier (Joe’s Daughter) is a neighbor and her son was just senselessly killed while working as a bouncer, he wasn’t even the intended victim so I’m more than a little incensed right now with these gun toting fools.
lovezoe

@coco Sorry I was misinformed. The fact of the matter is this boy lost his life over a few measly bucks. We as a people need to lead our young boys in the right direction and things like this will be less likely to happen.
http://myspace.com/necee518 yvonne79

Guess Ersley has the juice now
Shalala26

i stay in oklahoma city, and this has been alot of shit , the pharmacist is suppose to go back to work today so they hired a police office so be his body guard… this some redneck shit, okay if u shoot him once, why come back and shoot him 5 more times, oklahoma is a redneck state, u should have seen how these rednecks was acting when obama got elected.
Naima

LMAO@ #23
http://myspace.com/dannyblaq dblaq

F**k that fool. When a thug decides to commit a robbery and he uses a weapon you have to be prepared to use it. I feel NO remorse or compassion for any criminal that commits a crime and get their ass lit up. That is the problem in the first place in our country too much liency. WTF? a criminal trying to sue whoever he tried to rob, you can ONLY do this sh!t in the U.S. any other country that dumbass would have been stoned to death.

Quit making these damn excuses for the fools. People now right from wrong. They have not been mislead they chose to go the wrong path, there is enough shit out here that they know what is right and wrong. I get tired of people making excuses all the time. You want men to step up as men to take care of babies they father, well then part of it is to step up and pay the consequences for any decision you make!

RIP but oh well, he won’t rob anyone else and thats for sure maybe his homeboy learned a lesson
kcicero

Damn DBLAQ tell it brother!
ldorisca

I can’t understand how it wasn’t justified. The two boys were robbing the store. One had a gun to his head. What if the boys killed the pharmacist? Would it have been justified then? That boy wouldn’t be dead if they weren’t in there trying to rob somebody.
Daisy

Trying to figure out who made excuses for the robbers???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
thundercat

Im not taking up for the robber. He was wrong as hail. All im saying is look at the big picture. That was clearly overkill. The robber was not responsive after the first shot. He wasnt going anywhere. Call the police and let them do their job. He went back in and reloaded or grabbed another gun and stood over that boy to finish him off. That shows he had malicious intent to kill. That is no different than capital murder. Everybody knows two wrongs dont make a right
http://jsstm1.ning.com ursmyle4me

wow..I’m with the District Attorney on this one. The gunshot to the head was justified. He walked passed the boy, got another gun, and then came out, and then shot him five times in the stomach..that part was unjustifiable.

It’s sad either way. You would think the one with the gun would have gotten killed, but it’s always the ones being a follower.

This is sad, but yet another story to share with my daughter about stupidity. My heart goes out to the family, but when you carry a gun and rob people, you take the chance of getting youself killed.
http://charactercorner.blogspot.com attorneymom

I hope the man is acquitted. People are tired of the bull$$$$. See ya at the crossroads.
VAALLDAY

I’m sorry this young man had to loose his life, but as kcicero stated, you live like a thug, eventually you die like a thug. These young men today are out here robbing people. Get your own shyt, why you gotta steal from others. We don’t know how the pharmacist felt on the other end, so we can’t necessarily say that he wasn’t in danger. If he seen one with a gun, he didn’t have any proof that the other was unarmed.
ELove

Very TOUCHY subject…
I’m with @dblaq (Get Yo Avatar right homie) LOL
BUT the man already being no threat after the first shot is something that can’t be ignored here. Does armed robbery equate to being murdered???

I’ll end by saying:
If ANYONE (Any Fool-Hearted Individual) broke into my home, Armed or Not Armed, that individual is leaving out of my house in a Body-Bag w/ a Toe-tag.
http://myspace.com/thegameoncw Bird

He was definately justified in popping a cap in that ass, armed or not. The problem is the overkill. He went too far.
The Divine Ms. K

I’m with Bird. He was justified in defending himself, but when you have someone reloading a gun or shooting 5 more bullets into someoone who was already down, not responsive AND shot in the head – that’s too much.

I’m not defending the robbers at all, but come on. What he did was not necessary. And for someone who just had spinal surgery and was afraid someone with a bullet in their head would get up and attack him – he sprung out the door mighty quick after the armed kid and was pretty swift to get another gun to shoot the kid on the floor.

As I’m typing this, I’m getting pissed. Sorry – he went to damn far firing 5 bullets into an unconscious kid, robber or not.
http://atlNORTHonline.com dj_dceezy

Gravatar on deck! BUT, That will make these suckas think twice b4 robbin! Ppl talkin abt c’mon u got him once… Put urself in that position u mighta shot 10 times in the HEAD!
http://atlNORTHonline.com dj_dceezy

and reading sum otha responses… its OK to rob ppl armed or unarmed if you’re under 18? Still a kid? Thats okay to yall? For all dude knew, lil buddy mighta pulled a drama movie, and got up and killed him! And then what?
2012illuminati

We can all sit back and use logic and rationality but if you were in that same situation it’s hard to think with stability. It very possible that the pharmacist feared the boy could come back and kill him for revenge…
jamil2008

There is one key fact in this case that looks to favor the prosecution. The first shot was out of fear(clearly understandable), which is clearly present in the fact that he shot the boy from standing behind the register having just located his pistol. however, he was no longer in fear of his life when he WALKED TO THE ROBBER(not ran away from), STOOD DIRECTLY OVER HIM(if he truly felt in danger of his life his instinct should have been to flee as soon as the opportunity presented itself. His fear was obviously diminished, as he was able to comfortably stand over him), AND HE SHOT HIM 5 MORE TIMES!(Again, when you’re truly afraid for your life you run AWAY not TO. In this case he had malicious intent to kill him and his motive was simply REVENGE, not self defense.

I agree that the young man should never have been there to begin with and it’s unfortunate he and his friend had to learn that the hard way. But this is also a time when we as a community should use our voices to advocate for the prosecution and the boy’s family. The clerk was wrong. The law is the law and he(the clerk) broke it so it’s only right that justice should prevail.

If we can throw a Million Man march for some GENA 6 kids accused of beating down and white boy and being arrested and charged for it (those kids are still thuggin to this day!) then surely we should support an unjustifiable MURDER of one young black boy at the hands of a revenge-seeking, racist clerk. Come on now people. I’m just sayin’. These are the types of battles we should be choosing to fight!
nonoinokc

I live in OKC, and NO it was not justified. The kid he shot SIX times did NOT have a weapon. He has also been on several news casts with his lawyer with very conflicting statements. He should go to jail for a very long time!!!!

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