Desert Storm Vet Protects Female Employees by Shooting and Killing Violent Armed Robber
This is an excellent human interest piece which fills in the missing details from our earlier coverage of the incident HERE.
Man has no regrets defending Oklahoma City pharmacy
BY JOHNNY JOHNSON – NewsOK.com
Jerome Ersland was back at work Thursday filling prescriptions and hoping that by taking the life of a 16-year-old boy two days earlier, he had saved others.
Rubbing an oversized bandage on his left forearm, where he said he was grazed by a robber’s bullet, Ersland related details of what he said was a highly organized hit on the Reliable Discount Pharmacy.
“I just regret anybody would get killed,” Ersland said. “But if I wouldn’t have been here, there would have been three people killed — the other pharmacist and the two techs.”
He also recalls the angry voices of people who gathered outside the pharmacy Tuesday night, shouting that he was a racist who unnecessarily took a life of the Seeworth Academy charter school student, Antwun Parker.
“There were a lot of black people gathered out there yelling and everything at my boss,” Ersland said.
An organized hit
After the pharmacy near SW 59 and Pennsylvania was robbed two years ago, the owner installed new security measures to try to make sure his employees would never again be forced to a back room and pistol-whipped.
“We have a very good security system,” Ersland said, motioning to the magnetic door locks that won’t let anyone in or out of the store without permission. “The door locks, and they (robbers) knew that. They had cased it because they knew exactly what time to hit us when we’d have all of our narcotics out and our money out.”
About 10 minutes before 6 p.m., Ersland said, two robbers wearing ski masks waited for someone to leave the pharmacy and then grabbed the open door and threw down a board to stop the door from closing.
The robbers went in cursing and yelling, ordering employees to give them money and drugs, Ersland said.
Two women who were working behind the counter ran for a back room where they would be safe, but Ersland said he couldn’t run. Ersland said he’s a veteran with disabilities from wounds he received in Operation Desert Storm, wears a cumbersome back brace and just had his latest back surgery six weeks ago.
“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 said he was thrown against a wall, but managed to go for the semiautomatic in his pocket.
“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.
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.
“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.
[…]
“Fortunately, God made them miss me, except for this minor scratch,” Ersland said.
“I was able to return fire and protect the girls’ lives. God was helping me.”
Explore posts in the same categories: Crime, criminal activity, Right to Bear Arms
Doctor Bulldog & Ronin 
22 May, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Yeah, that poor innocent, armed and shooting 16 yo youth. As was mentioned in another post, “you live by the gun, you’ll die by it.”
I don’t rejoice in the loss of life, in general, but I do applaud a man who defends himself and others. Well done, sir.
The Taurus Judge is an impressive piece of hardware, a 5 shot, revolver with .410 shotgun shells, or .45 whichever you prefer. I have a friend that bought one recently. I would not like to be looking down the business end of one.
22 May, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Yup, the Taurus Judge looks awfully intimidating, and you don’t have to worry much about it shooting through a wall and killing a neighbor.
I believe one of our readers, Senor Doeboy, was thinking of buying one. Hmmmm… I wonder where he’s been lately. We haven’t seen him around here since sometime back in February… Just about the time he was going to purchase that Taurus Judge… Hmmmmmmm……
Cheers
22 May, 2009 at 1:28 pm
My buddy got it for walking in the woods to protect against snakes. Unfortunately, for him, the shot spread is really quick, so he runs as good a chance of getting his foot as getting the snake, if he’s shooting straight down.
Taurus had a video up that showed why they made it. They’re a Brazilian company and it was to help prevent car jacking, that is prevalent in the big cities down there.
22 May, 2009 at 12:53 pm
but but but,
he was a good boy. Well um aside from his pharmacy robbing tendencies.
22 May, 2009 at 1:19 pm
thugs want to rip off honkies, not much different from the thugs who wanted to blow up two jewish house’s of worship in nyc.
22 May, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I’m guessing robberies at this particular pharmacy will be waaaayyy down in the future.
22 May, 2009 at 2:29 pm
The group outside protesting, should be at home beating their kids for wearing pants down to their feet, and listening to hateful Rap.
Good shot placement from a Honorable Veteran. It is to bad to see more enemys of America are here in our own home towns.
23 May, 2009 at 2:40 am
Here come da judge!
http://www.taurususa.com/video/taurus-theJudge-video.cfm
28 May, 2009 at 10:39 am
Too bad Mr. Ersland retrieved a second pistol and shot the dude 5 times in the abdomen while he was lying on the floor(according to Fox news article).
he’s being charged with 1st degree murder – hope the jury doesn’t convict…
26 May, 2011 at 7:19 pm
did you here about the Tuscon SWAT shooting a Marine Veteran in his own home 60 times?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/tucson-swat-team-defends-shooting-iraq-marine-veteran/story?id=13640112&page=2
This BS makes me sick all over. The world is indeed on fire. Smell the smoke people.
16 July, 2010 at 10:31 am
Umm… he’s not a Desert Storm vet. He lied about that. Just like he lied about the perps shooting at him (Forensic reports show that Ersland was the only one who fired a gun that day – the perp never discharged his weapon) and just like he lied about being wounded during the incident and wrapping his arm in a fake bandage. And, just like he lied about how the incident went down… until after the video came out and he completely changed his story to fit with events as they were clearly shown on the video. (In fact, he’s changed his story at least three times now)
He told the Police that he was injured in Desert Storm during a mortar attack, and that he had “killed a lot of people there.” Unfortunately, his military records later came to light – it turns out he was a military pharmacist stationed in Oklahoma throughout his entire service during the Gulf War. He never saw combat at any time in his life. Even though he told police that he now suffers from PTSD due to his experiences in Iraq during the war. He lied about being a war hero.
He’s a psycho. His mental stability was an issue in both of his prior divorce proceedings. Both ex-wives claimed he was mentally unstable. He’s a menace! Don’t think so? He chased the first perp out of the store and fired multiple shots at him, with reckless abandon, on a populated street where children were. I bet my bottom dollar that you’d have a very different opinion regarding ol’ Mr. Ersland if someone you knew had been on that street that day and had happened to have been hit by one of his stray bullets. The man’s a menace. A dangerous menace. A murderer. And, he needs to be locked up.
Don’t get me wrong, now. I have zero sympathy for the dead robber. “Live by the sword…” as far as I’m concerned. But this is clearly a case of one bad guy choosing to execute another. The fact that people are calling Ersland a “hero” is both disgusting and frightening. And, it’s a sad, sad indication of the general state of moral dysfunction in today’s society.
Too many people these days seem to lack either the moral or intellectual wherewithal to not allow blood-lust to cloud their judgment. Too many people are so intellectually challenged that they are unable of seeing the world in anything beyond two dimensions – anything beyond black and white.
“One person was a bad guy, so the guy that killed him must be a good guy – it’s either black, or it’s white. My brain is incapable of dealing with anything more complex than that.”
Sad, pathetic and terrifying.
26 May, 2011 at 7:10 pm
So if this man is guiltly of 1st degree murder for killing a man (anyone willing to rob a store at gunpoint should be treated as a man, not a child anymore) who was attempting to rob him by shooting him up to six times…
What about the swat team that was conducting a search warrant on a home and shot a 26 year old Marine Veteran 60 times? I wish that I could put numbers in capitals just to exclaim better that he was shot 60, sixty, sesenta times. They shot at him over 70 times and 60 of those bullets hit him while he was in his hallway trying to protect his wife and two, 2, dos children (who were hiding in the closet) because his wife saw a man pointing a gun at her through the window!
Records show that his safety was found in the ON position and he never fired a shot. If a Marine Vet protecting his home can be filled with copper and lead inside his own home for NO REASON other than the police wanting to send in SWAT to conduct search warrants, why should Jerome face a murder conviction for his actions against a hostile individual.
The world is on fire and someone needs to pull the alarm!
27 May, 2011 at 3:35 pm
I read that, and posted on pajamas media it is to bad the Marine did not assualt through the jackbooted ambush speed loading his seven clips. One in the mag, six on the H-harness.
A lesson for me.
Platoon Sgt. USMC
26 May, 2011 at 7:17 pm
In case you doubt my story about a Marine shot sixty times…
http://abcnews.go.com/US/tucson-swat-team-defends-shooting-iraq-marine-veteran/story?id=13640112&page=2
28 May, 2011 at 10:36 am
This issue shows that a properly trained Marine in seconds recognized “friendlies” placed his weapon on safe and that poorly trained police over reacted and lacking fire control discipline essentially murdered him.
In the end the police will forgive themselves. They do the same thing when they cause wreaks and murder soccer moms.
When I started blogging I made a defense plan just in case a crazy pedophile worshiper found my home. After reading this story I am thinking that I should have another plan should swat breach instead of just knocking on the door like grown ups.
28 May, 2011 at 11:20 am
I live in a county where many of the police are ex Marines and I have noticed that they are disciplined and don’t panic nor lose their temper. I have long understood that Marines make the best cops. If I ever have to be arrested I hope they send Marines instead of any of these other idiots. It could be that they were afraid of the Marine but thats no excuse. Of course it could be that they thought the Marine was perhaps a tea partier too. I believe that sheriff dipstick is gunning for them, hes a loose cannon. Anyone in the area should see what they can do for the family he left behind.
27 May, 2011 at 3:06 pm
[…] Mr. Ersland of negligence.There is no shortage of chutzpah in America. But way too little justice.More:Rubbing an oversized bandage on his left forearm, where he said he was grazed by a robber’s […]
28 May, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Unfortunately most civilians are ‘trained’ not to fire upon police or other ‘authoritarian’ forces that invade your personal space.
It only leads to alot more civilian friends getting killed and more police being allowed to invade through unfair and crap laws.
22 January, 2013 at 4:44 am
[…] Desert Storm Vet Protects Female Employees by Shooting and Killing Violent Armed Robber […]
23 April, 2014 at 9:52 pm
No update in this story that Ersland was a liar and drug abuser?
He was NOT in the Gulf War, he was on an AF base in Southwest Oklahoma. Maybe he thinks Southwest Oklahoma qualified him for the Southwest Asia Service Medal?
And he got busted with hard drugs in prison.
Update the story. The man is a psycho killer, who shot an unconscious thief 5 times in the chest. There’s no justifying shooting an unconscious person 5 times in the chest.