ATLANTA — Two deputies yell “Stop fighting!” and “He’s got my Taser!” as they repeatedly stun a handcuffed man in the back of a vehicle, commanding him to relax even as he insists “I’m dead,” shortly before he stops breathing, body-camera videos show.
The videos show the Nov. 20 incident in the back of an SUV in Coweta County, outside Atlanta. Chase Sherman, 32, of Destin, Fla., was pronounced dead at a hospital later that day.
The deputies responded after Sherman’s mother called 911. She told the dispatcher she was in a car with her husband, her son and the son’s girlfriend on southbound Interstate 85. She said her son was “freaking out” and had taken the synthetic drug spice.
The deputies approach the vehicle and start struggling with Sherman, with someone yelling “Tase him!” and “Hit him!” as he cries out and his mother begs them to stop, as shown in the videos. The videos from the body cameras of the two responding deputies were released Friday by Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Peter Skandalakis.
“What’s your problem, buddy?” one deputy says. “That’s a good way to get shot right there. I tell you right now, you grab my Taser again, it’s gonna be on.”
On the videos, the deputies insist that his mother and girlfriend in the front seat get away from the area.
The deputies tell the family they’re subduing Sherman for their own protection. They call for more help and tell Sherman, “Just relax, stop resisting.” They hit him with the stun gun multiple times. He cries out, eventually saying, “I’m dead.”
At one point, Sherman is on the floor of the SUV. An emergency medical technician leans on him.
The deputies realize Sherman has stopped breathing and move him out of the vehicle. The family wails off camera. A deputy says, “Get the family back.”
“He ain’t breathing,” someone says.
Emergency personnel do chest compressions on the roadside; a deputy removes Sherman’s handcuffs.
Skandalakis said Friday his office has not finished reviewing the case and the investigation is ongoing.
Both deputies are still employed with the department.
