A man died at an Atlanta jail on ‘Taser Tuesday.’ Now six deputies are indicted on murder charges.

When Antonio May, 32, arrived at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta in September 2018, guards there allegedly shouted that it was “Taser Tuesday.”

Earlier that day, May was arrested for throwing rocks at a building and was placed in a general holding cell at the jail, despite him testing positive for amphetamines and being deemed suicidal by a medical technician, according to a lawsuit his family later filed.

In the cell, May took off his clothes and exposed himself. In response, six deputies went into May’s cell, with one using a Taser on him without warning, according to the lawsuit. A confrontation ensued, after which all six deputies Tasered, beat and pepper-sprayed him, according to the lawsuit. Then, the deputies allegedly placed May in a restraining chair, covered his head in a “spit mask” - a mask used to protect police from bodily fluids - and tried to wash the pepper spray off him by placing a water hose to his face.

Minutes later, May was dead, “laying in a pool of his own blood,” his family’s lawsuit states.

Now, more than three years later, a grand jury has indicted those six deputies on five charges, including felony murder, aggravated assault, battery and violation of oath of office by a public officer. The officers named in the indictment are Arron Cook, Guito DeLa Cruz, Omar Jackson, Jason Roache, Kenesia Strowder and William Whitaker.

“It is now the duty of my office to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury at trial,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “My staff and I will continue to work to ensure that justice is done in this case.”

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday. In court documents filed in response to the lawsuit, the county has denied wrongdoing. The civil case is ongoing.

On Sept. 11, 2018, according to the lawsuit, May was on amphetamines and experiencing a mental health crisis when he showed up at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta and threw rocks at the windows.

When police arrived, May surrendered peacefully and was taken to a hospital for an evaluation. It was determined that May was experiencing a “Substance Abuse Psychotic Disorder,” the lawsuit says. The hospital released him to the county jail, where May was again evaluated by an emergency medical technician, who noted that May was “suicidal,” according to the lawsuit.

But instead of placing May in a medical observation unit and treating him for intoxication, May was put in a holding cell, according to court documents. There, May stripped naked. The six deputies showed up to confront May, and immediately, “without warning,” one of the deputies shot May in the chest with a Taser, according to court documents.

A “confrontation ensued,” according to the complaint. The six deputies then used a Taser on May “repeatedly,” according to court papers, with some of them placing their stun guns near May’s genitals and around his buttocks.

“The detention officers beat Mr. May with closed fist strikes and sprayed pepper spray in his face,” court documents state.

To remove the pepper spray, the officers placed May in a restraining chair, where on his head they placed the spit mask - used to protect police from bodily fluids - and put May in a showering area, according to the complaint. When the shower did not wash away all of the pepper spray, the officers used a water hose on his face.

Soon after, May died, according to the complaint.

Given his mental state, the lawsuit argues that May should have been placed in observation instead of a holding cell. A medical examiner’s investigation found that May died of cardiac arrest caused by “probable excited delirium with physical restraint use,” the Appeal, a news outlet focused on criminal justice, reported.

For years, the district attorney’s investigation moved slowly. But on Tuesday, Willis’s office presented the results of its investigation to the Fulton County grand jury, which chose to indict the officers, Willis said in a statement to WGCL.

Willis became Fulton County’s first Black female chief prosecutor earlier this year after her election last fall. She added in Tuesday’s statement that “my staff and I are working through the backlog of cases left by my predecessor involving use of force by law enforcement officers.”