Two Tacoma officers involved in Manuel Ellis’ death named in excessive force claim
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The police death of Manuel Ellis
More than a year after Manuel Ellis died in police custody, the attorney general charged three officers in his death.
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A man who said he was unlawfully arrested by Tacoma officers in 2019 is seeking $500,000 in damages from the city of Tacoma, according to a new tort claim filed in June.
Two of the officers named in the claim, Timothy Rankine, 32, and Masyih Ford, 29, were involved in the death of Manuel Ellis months later in March 2020.
Dustin Dean, 28, said the officers used excessive force when he was unlawfully arrested around 12:08 a.m. on Dec. 14, 2019. Cellphone video of the incident shows the two officers arrest and handcuff Dean on the ground.
The tort claim, first reported by The Seattle Times, states that Dean intends to file a civil rights lawsuit if the city is “not willing to compromise this claim.” Dean is represented by attorney James Bible, who also represents the Ellis family in a $30 million lawsuit against the city announced last August.
In May, Rankine was charged with manslaughter in Ellis’ death. Two other Tacoma officers were charged with murder. Ford was not charged in the Ellis case.
The events of Dean’s arrest were outlined in the tort claim:
On Dec. 13, 2019, Dean attended a Christmas party with his girlfriend, Vanessa Henriquez-Ray. When they returned to Henriquez-Ray’s apartment that night, they had a “trivial argument” about the food served at the party.
The two entered the apartment and continued to talk, according to the claim. While Henriquez-Ray went to change, Ford and Rankin arrived at the apartment, responding to a domestic violence call.
“The officers snatched Dustin and started detaining him … . The officers refused to tell him why they were there or why they were detaining him. Dustin was passively resisting as the officers started to physically drag him out of the apartment and down the stairs, despite having no probable cause that he had committed any crime,” the claim states.
Henriquez-Ray and her adult daughter, Talia Wright, witnessed the incident and Wright started filming on her cellphone. Officer Rankine put “Dustin in a chokehold” and the officers told him to “put his (expletive) hands behind his back,” according to the claim. He was eventually handcuffed.
Henriquez-Ray and Wright called 911 and asked to speak to a TPD supervisor, who never asked to provide a written statement
“Although the officers were allegedly responding to a domestic violence call there was never any physical evidence of violence and they never took the time to question anyone prior to detaining Dustin,” the claim states.
Attorneys representing Ford and Rankine could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
