A family driving on a Georgia interstate called police for help after their loved one began acting erratically, biting his fiancee and trying to jump out of the car – an apparent response to synthetic marijuana he had ingested earlier.
Coweta County sheriff’s deputies ended up killing him.
The incident took place in November, but a body cam video was just released today to the New York Times, showing deputies repeatedly tasering a handcuffed Chase Sherman until he said, “I’m dead.”
Twenty seconds later, deputies Joshua Sepanski and Sam Smith discovered that he was, indeed, dead.
But both deputies are still on duty as prosecutors say they are still investigating.
The body cam footage shows one deputy rushing up to the scene to see Sherman with both hands cuffed in front of him while struggling with another deputy.
“Tase his ass!” the first deputy yelled to the second deputy. “Tase him! Hit him!”
Both deputies began tasering him repeatedly until Sherman grabbed a taser from one of the deputies in an apparent attempt to stop the torture.
“That’s a good way to get shot right there,” the deputy responded.
“I’ll tell you right now, you grab my taser again, it’s going to be on!”
“You’re not going to shoot him,” said Sherman’s mother from the front seat. “You hear me?”
“You understand … this is for our protection,” the deputy responded, fearing the handcuffed man who did not appreciate being tasered.
“Right now he is being combative. He tried to take my taser away from me, ma’am.”
And the tasering continued from both deputies, one of them yelling, “stop fighting!”
Sherman then grabbed a deputy’s taser, prompting a panicked yell from the deputy, “He’s got my taser!”
The struggle and the tasering continued until 2:37 in the video when Sherman appears to have given up.
“Ok, I’m dead. I’m dead,” he said.
“I quit, I quit,” he said less than 20 seconds later.
But the tasering continued as they placed their body weights on him, forcing his face down into a floorboard.
At 3:19, a deputy says, “He’s good now. I got all the weight in the world on him now.”
At 3:24, Sherman says again, “I’m dead. I’m dead.”
At 3:44, he no longer had a pulse.
“He’s got a pulse?” asked on deputy.
“Can’t feel one,” responded either a deputy or a paramedic who had appeared on the scene.
They then began to pull him out of the back seat as one deputy said, “Naw, he ain’t fucking breathing.”
No longer fearing for their safety, the deputies began fearing for their jobs now that he was no longer breathing.
Another deputy, who appeared to have arrived after the confrontation started, appeared to take glee in the fact that Sherman had died.
“Yeah, I’m read to do that (unintelligible) thing again,” he said with a grin.
“Dude, I’m fucking fired,” the deputy responded, apparently not sharing the glee.
“No, you ain’t,” said the grinning deputy. “You’re good. You’re fine.”
