On the afternoon of March 5, 2015, Jerry Jamison, a 41-year-old white male from Oklahoma City, was at home with his children in their house on Southwest 22nd Street, not far from Portland Avenue. It was an ordinary weekday, the kind of day when a single father focused on making ends meet and keeping life steady for his three kids. That sense of routine was shattered when a knock sounded at the front door and the family’s quiet home abruptly became the scene of a deadly home invasion.
According to police and neighbors, one of the intruders, David Lee Cox, came to the door first and was allowed inside. Moments later, a second man, Russell Ermeling, followed. Witnesses and neighbors later recounted how the men forced their way in, some wearing masks and carrying guns, pushing deeper into the house. Inside, the intruders moved toward the kitchen, ransacking cabinets and demanding money while the children were held at gunpoint on the floor, terrified and powerless in their own home.
Hearing the commotion from elsewhere in the house, Jamison stepped into the kitchen and confronted the armed men. Neighbors later said he was “just trying to protect his family,” acting on instinct rather than any thought for his own safety. A struggle erupted as he tried to fight back, and then gunshots cracked through the small home—just a few shots, followed by screaming, as one neighbor recalled. Jamison was hit multiple times. One of his children, desperate and panicked, chased after one of the fleeing assailants even as their father collapsed, bleeding. A neighbor, Micaela Solano, ran over and tried to stop the bleeding, insisting to herself that he would be all right for his kids, but the wounds were too severe. Jamison was rushed to OU Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The violence inside the home did not leave the attackers unscathed. During the struggle, someone inside the house managed to get hold of a gun, and Cox was shot. Police arriving on scene found him in the road outside, bleeding from a gunshot wound. He was taken to OU Medical Hospital in critical condition and placed under guard as a suspect. Investigators quickly identified the second intruder as 21-year-old Russell Ermeling. He fled the scene in a white getaway car but later turned himself in to the Tecumseh Police Department, where he was booked on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with Jamison’s death. Police described the incident as a robbery attempt that turned deadly, saying Cox and Ermeling had entered the home, produced a pistol, and demanded money before the struggle and gunfire erupted.
Authorities also believed a third person was involved: the driver of the getaway car that whisked Ermeling away from the crime scene. While Cox and Ermeling were in custody or under direct police supervision within a short time of the shooting, that third suspect remained unidentified and at large in the aftermath. Police publicly appealed for information, urging anyone who recognized the getaway driver or knew anything about the planning of the robbery to call the homicide tip line. Even as officers worked the case, Jamison’s family and friends focused on the three children who had witnessed the chaos, now left without their father. A fundraising effort was launched to help cover expenses and support them after the loss of the man described by relatives as their sole provider, a father whose last moments were spent trying to shield his kids from the violence that had forced its way into their home.
