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Body Cam Shows Georgia Man Fatally Tasered by Police 2:02
The last moments of an apparently out-of-control Florida man who was repeatedly Tasered by Georgia deputies struggling to subdue him was captured by silent witnesses — the officers' body cameras.
The confrontation, which is now under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, ended with 32-year-old Chase Sherman dead by the side of Georgia highway and his parents wailing in grief.
The deputies who had repeatedly ordered Sherman to stop fighting them during the Nov. 20 encounter also appeared stunned.
"He took my Taser away and started fighting me," one of them could be heard explaining afterward. "Got out of the seat belt, started fighting me. I pull him back a little bit, but I had to Tase him from the back."
Logs indicate Sherman was zapped 15 times while battling Deputies Samuel Smith and Joshua Sepanski.
Chase Sherman Courtesy of family
Sherman's parents, Kevin and Mary Ann Sherman, told NBC News they intend to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
"They never tried to talk him down," the weeping mother said. "They Tased him right in the chest."
Sherman's dad said he wants the Justice Department to investigate his son's death.
"These guys kept Tasing him in the rear, Tasing him in the back," Kevin Sherman said, choking back tears. "He had the handcuffs on him the entire time."
And when Sherman stopped struggling, his dad said, they "ripped him out of the car like a dead dog and dropped him on the concrete."
Coweta County District Attorney Peter Skandalakis said "the review of this case in not complete" and that they have released the footage "in recognition of the great public interest in this matter."
"I extend my condolences to the Sherman family and thank them for their patience," the DA said in his statement.
Coweta County Sheriff Mike Yeager said his office turned everything over to authorities, and called Sherman's death "a tragic event." In an interview with NBC affiliate WXIA in Atlanta, Yeager said the recording of the panicked 911 call shows the volatility of the situation.
"He is not a victim in this case," Yeager told the station. "The family that called out for help that night, they're the victims in this case. He's the perpetrator ... attacking, assaulting them" and then officers.
"The officers' intent was to get this individual under control and put him in an ambulance and get him to the hospital to get him evaluated," Yeager said.
Sherman's death was ruled a homicide due to "an altercation with law enforcement with several trigger pulls of an electronic control device," according to a death certificate obtained by NBC News. It also notes that he had been shoved to the floor of the car and that his torso was compressed "by the body weight of another individual." It has not been determined if his death was criminal.
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Parents of Man Tasered to Death by Deputies Watched Body Cam Video 1:08
At one point in the footage, during a brief lull in the struggle, one of the deputies can be heard foreshadowing the eventual autopsy results.
"He's good now," the unidentified deputy says. "Got all the weight in the world on him now."
The deadly drama began when Sherman, his fiancee and parents were driving home to Destin, Florida, from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
They had been in the Dominican Republic for the wedding of Sherman's brother. And about an hour into the trip, Sherman — apparently reacting to a synthetic marijuana called Spice that he had taken earlier — began hallucinating. He bit his girlfriend and tried to hop out of the car.
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