COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) – It’s been nearly two months since Chad Burnett died during an altercation with police in Colorado Springs, but on Wednesday the El Paso County Coroner ruled his death a homicide.

Police responded to Burnett’s home on May 24 after neighbors reported that he was threatening at least one person with a knife. 

When officers arrived, Burnett was inside his home, and he initially refused to come outside or open the front door. The police officers tried to speak to Burnett through the door.

One officer could be heard in police body-camera footage saying, “We won’t hurt you, of course not. We’re here to help you.”

Eventually, Burnett came outside his home and spoke with police for a few moments before they chased him back into his house, tased him and handcuffed him.

Burnett resisted the officers attempts to take him outside of his home in cuffs. 

They restrained him inside the home, and according to the police department, an officer contacted dispatchers to request a medical crew to respond to the scene because an officer had deployed a taser.

According to a police timeline, the medical crew arrived 15 minutes after they were first contacted about the taser deployment. They soon discovered he was not breathing and began chest compressions but were unable to revive him.

“It is my opinion that Chad Burnett, a 49-year-old white male, died as a result of sudden death associated with physical altercation, taser deployment,cardiac hypertrophy with myocardial fibrosis, and bipolar disorder featuring acute psychotic episode,” the El Paso County Coroner wrote in his autopsy report. “Because his death occurred during a physical altercation with other persons, including the use of a taser, the manner of death is homicide.”