COWETA COUNTY, Ga. -- The Coweta County sheriff is adamant that a man who died on the side of Interstate 85 is not the victim in a confrontation with deputies.
The exchange was captured on body camera video and just released on Friday.
The woman in the video is Chase Sherman’s mother. She’s the one who called for help in November of 2015 saying her son was high on drugs and attacking the family in the car.
But the family and sheriff’s office have two very different views on what happened next.
Sheriff Mike Yeager said his officers did what they had to do to survive. And while he said he is sorry Sherman died, he said his officers have nothing to apologize for.
“Those officers didn’t arrive on that scene looking to kill somebody,” Sheriff Yeager.
Yeager said he thinks the video shows the officers trying to defend themselves.
“I think it showed the officers trying to get a combative, out-of-control apparently under some type of synthetic drugs – they’re trying to get him under control,” he said. “And he’s fighting with them. He’s fighting with everybody there.”
In the video, the officers talk about the repercussions of what just happened.
“I’m screwed, I’m totally screwed,” one said.
Yeager said the officers knew the backlash was coming.
“I think that’s the mentality of officers these days,” he said. “It’s we’re danged if we do and danged if we don’t.”
Still, he thinks his officers acted appropriately.
“Keep it in perspective. The attorneys are portraying him as a victim. He is not the victim in this case,” he said. “The parents and the fiancé – they are the victims in this case. He is the perpetrator; he was the perpetrator in this case.”
Chase Sherman’s family disagrees – saying their son was murdered.
But Yeager said their own call for help tells a different story.
“The biggest piece of evidence in the whole case is that 911 call – that 911 call,” he said. “That initiated this whole series of events. That’s the key element in this whole thing.”
