I have never had a gun put in my face, but in talking to those who have, I hear a recurring theme; no matter the caliber, when you are starring down the barrel it looks like a cannon. Something I thought of when I learned of the conviction of an Oklahoma City pharmacist last week.

Jerome Ersland was given a life sentence for the first-degree murder of would be robber 16-year-old Antwun Parker. 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 defense.

Dramatic surveillance footage shows Antwun Parker and an accomplice running into the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in South Oklahoma City and pointing a gun directly at Mr. Ersland. Ersland then shot the 16-year-old dropping him to the floor. After chasing the accomplice from the store, Ersland then gets a second gun before shooting Parker another five times.

I wonder if when Mr. Ersland went to pharmacy school, he could have imagined he would find himself in such a life and death situation.

When asked why he robbed banks, bank robber Willie Sutton is reported to have said…”because that is where the money is.”

That same principle applies in a disturbing trend of pharmacy hold ups. Criminals not looking for money, but for drugs. In today’s video blog, Oklahoma Horizon’s Courtenay Dehoff introduces us to another Oklahoma pharmacist who was on the wrong side of drug store violence.

Pharmacy Danger from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.