'Tase him!' 'I'm dead': Deputies struggle with man in videos

ATLANTA (AP) — 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 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.

Nathan Lee, an attorney for the sheriff's office, said the family has indicated they plan to sue, and the agency's doesn't comment on pending or threatened litigation.

The family's attorney, Chris Stewart, said at a news conference Friday that they'd been in the Dominican Republic for his brother's wedding and decided to rent a car and drive home after Sherman became agitated during a layover in Atlanta, Stewart said.

[...] he said that once Sherman was handcuffed and stopped struggling, the officers should have waited for medical personnel rather than continuing to use stun guns and the weight of a person to subdue him.

Chuck Drago, a former police officer who is now a Florida-based consultant on training and procedures for police departments, reviewed the video at the request of The Associated Press.

Taser International, which makes the stun guns used by the sheriff's office, issues warnings to law enforcement that cumulative exposure to electric weapons can cause serious injury or death, he said.

Sherman's death certificate lists his death as a homicide and the cause as "sudden death during an altercation with law enforcement with several trigger pulls of an electronic control device, prone positioning on the floor of a motor vehicle and compression of the torso by the body weight of another individual."

If the district attorney declines to bring the case before a grand jury, his family wants the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the incident, Stewart said.