A jury has acquitted three Washington police officers of all criminal charges in the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was shaken, punched and held face down on a Tacoma sidewalk as he begged for air.
Two police officers – Matthew Collins, 40, and Christopher Burbank, 38 – were charged with murder and manslaughter, while Timothy Rankine, 34, was charged with manslaughter. The jury found all three innocent on all counts.
The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’ death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation, but deputies’ attorneys said high levels of methamphetamine in Ellis’ system and a heart defect were the causes.
Witnesses — one of whom yelled at officers to stop assaulting Ellis — and a surveillance camera captured video of parts of the encounter on the night of March 3, 2020. The video showed Ellis with his hands up in a surrender position, while Burbank he threw a ‘taser’ at his chest and Collins put an arm around his neck from behind.
Officers later told investigators that Ellis had attacked them and been violent. Witnesses stated that they had seen no such thing.
“When I saw Manuel not doing anything and him being attacked like that, it wasn’t right,” 26-year-old witness Sara McDowell said during the trial.
“I’ve never seen the police do anything like that. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen. It was scary,” he added.
Collins testified that he regretted Ellis’ death, but that he would not have done anything differently. He claimed he never heard Ellis repeatedly say he couldn’t breathe, and claimed he initiated the confrontation by lifting Collins off the ground and throwing him backwards, something no other witness claimed to have seen.
Rankine called Ellis’ death a tragedy. He pressed his knees against Ellis’ back as he asked for air.
“The only answer I could think of at that moment was ‘if you can talk to me, you can breathe,’” Rankine said.
Ellis’ death became a touchstone for racial justice protesters in the Pacific Northwest, but it also coincided with the first U.S. Covid-19 outbreak at a nursing home in nearby Kirkland and failed to draw the attention that the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis almost three months later.
Source: DN
