Chase Sherman.jpg

Chase Sherman is pictured with his fiancee, Patti Galloway. (NBC News, courtesy of the Sherman family)

(NBC News, courtesy of the Sherman family)

Police body camera footage released last week shows a Destin man being tasered 15 times before he stopped breathing and died last year in the back seat of a car on Interstate 85 in Georgia.

Chase Sherman, 32, was travelling home from the Atlanta airport with his parents, Kevin and Mary Ann Sherman, and his fiancee, Patti Galloway. According to the New York Times, the family had spent several days in the Dominican Republic for the wedding of Sherman's brother.

The Times reports that his parents became concerned about his erratic behavior, which included hallucinations, while on the trip and that Sherman told them he'd taken synthetic marijuana prior to traveling. His behavior continued on the leg home as they waited to board a flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where he told his parents he did not want to get on the plane.

The family decided to drive from Atlanta to Destin instead. About an hour outside of Atlanta, he again began hallucinating and tried to get out of the car, at one point biting his fiancee.

Sherman's mother called 911.

By the end of his encounter with police, he was dead. See the video footage below. Warning: It contains violent content and graphic language.

NBC News, which obtained a copy of his death certificate, reports that his death was ruled a homicide due to "an altercation with law enforcement with several trigger pulls of an electronic control device."

The certificate also notes that he had been shoved to the floorboard of the car and his body compressed by an officer's body weight.

It has not been established if the homicide was a criminal act, but the case is under investigation.

The camera footage shows the violent struggle between Sherman and the deputies, with one using his stun gun on him and another punching him. At one point, the deputies tell Sherman's mother and fiancee they will have to get out of the car.

"No!" Mary Ann Sherman screams. "You're not gonna shoot him! You hear me?"

The struggle continues, and at one point Sherman gives up.

"Okay, I'm dead, I'm dead," he tells the deputies. "I quit."

The fight continues for a few more moments before Sherman suddenly becomes limp. Deputies realize he is not breathing and drag him out of the car to begin CPR.

When the CPR fails to revive Sherman, the deputy who tasered him is heard worrying over his job.

Coweta County Sheriff Mike Yeager told NBC that the deputies did not go to the scene to kill someone. He also pointed out the volatility of the scene when the deputies arrived.

"He is not a victim in this case," Yeager told NBC's Atlanta affiliate. "The family that called out for help that night, they're the victims in this case. He's the perpetrator...attacking, assaulting them" before then fighting the deputies.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigated the incident and turned its evidence over to the Coweta County District Attorney's Office, which is doing its own review. In the meantime, the deputies remain on the job.