Trial to start for officers after death of Black man

Tacoma, Wash., police face deadly force charges

Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of three Washington police officers involved in the death of a 33year-old Black man, the first case in which law enforcement officers were charged with unlawfully using deadly force by the state’s attorney general’s office.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson charged Tacoma Police Department officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins with second-degree murder and Timothy Rankine with first-degree manslaughter in the 2020 death of Manuel “Manny” Ellis. Like George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis months later, Ellis told officers he couldn’t breathe multiple times during a struggle that was captured on camera. The officers have pleaded not guilty.

Opening statements are expected to begin on Oct. 2 and the jury is projected to begin deliberations on Dec. 4.

Here’s what to know about the case:

What happened to Manuel Ellis?

Ellis was walking home from 7-Eleven on March 3, 2020, when he briefly spoke to Burbank and Collins in their police car, according to a probable cause statement filed by the Washington Attorney General’s Office. Ellis began to walk away, the officers got out of the car and attacked him as bystanders began to record on their cellphones.

Burbank slammed Ellis onto the pavement and then he and Collins began hitting Ellis, according to video of the incident. Collins placed Ellis in a “lateral vascular neck restraint,” and Burbank fired his taser while Ellis had his hands raised, the statement reads.

Collins removed his arms from Ellis’ neck and pushed his face down into the pavement, according to the statement. A doorbell camera captured Ellis telling the officers he couldn’t breathe, and one of the officers responded with “Shut the (expletive) up, man.”

Rankine arrived less than a minute later and helped the officers restrain Ellis, who was handcuffed and in the prone position, the statement said. Rankine placed one knee just below the base of Ellis’ neck and another on his lower back. Ellis repeatedly told the officers he couldn’t breathe, and a hobble was wrapped around his legs as Rankine applied pressure to his back.

The officers placed a spit-hood over his head, according to prosecutors, and Ellis was later pronounced dead.

The use of spit hoods has been criticized as dangerous and inhumane and received renewed attention after another Black man, Daniel Prude, died of asphyxiation in Rochester, New York, in March 2020. Ellis’ death came two months before Floyd said ‘I can’t breathe’ as he was murdered by police officers in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests.

Burbank and Collins later told other officers that before the altercation, Ellis had tried to get into a vehicle that was passing through the intersection and then attacked the patrol car and the officers, according to the probable cause statement. Accounts from witnesses and video of the incident contradict those claims, the statement said.

Officers indicted after botched investigation

The Pierce County Medical Examiner determined the cause of Ellis’ death was a lack of oxygen “due to physical restraint” and found the manner of death was homicide. Methamphetamine was found in Ellis’ blood, but the medical examiner said “Ellis’s death was not likely caused by methamphetamine intoxication,” according to the probable cause statement.

Ted Buck, an attorney for Rankine, said the physical struggle combined with Ellis’ “significant medical and physiological issues, including an extreme concentration of methamphetamine in his blood” led to his death. Buck said Rankine followed his training.

“The evidence will show his acts were undertaken in conformity with proper protocols, with care and with attention to Mr. Ellis’ condition ... Officer Rankine welcomes the opportunity to provide the jurors with the truth surrounding the incident,” Buck said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The Pierce County Sheriff ’s Office initially investigated Ellis’ death, but later it was revealed that sheriff ’s office personnel were involved in Ellis’s detention, according to the attorney general’s office. Gov. Jay Inslee ordered the Washington State Patrol to investigate.

The officers were charged in May 2021, marking the first time the attorney general’s office criminally charged police officers for the unlawful use of deadly force and the second time an officer has been charged in a homicide in Washington since voters approved Initiative 940, which removed the requirement that prosecutors show an officer acted with malice in order to file a murder charge.

The officers are on paid administrative leave, according to the Tacoma Police Department.

In 2022, the Pierce County Council approved a $4 million payout to settle a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and officers brought by Ellis’s family. Ellis’ sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, and mother, Marcia Carter, are also pursuing a separate wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Tacoma.