Another delay in deciding whether Tacoma officers will be charged with Manuel Ellis’ death
A charging decision against Tacoma police officers involved in the death of Manuel Ellis will be delayed at least a month, according to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.
Officials in February said they believed they would complete a case review by April 6. This week, they said it will be another 4 to 6 weeks.
“We appreciate and understand that the Ellis family and many others have waited for a resolution to the investigation and a final charging decision,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a written statement. “Our work, however, must be thorough. A premature decision would be a disservice to the interests of justice.”
Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died from lack of oxygen March 3, 2020, while being restrained by police. His death was ruled a homicide, with methamphetamine and heart disease listed as contributing factors.
After video surfaced of Ellis saying, “I can’t breathe, sir, I can’t breathe,” shortly before losing consciousness, his death became a rallying cry and prompted protests in Tacoma against police brutality and racial inequality.
Ellis’ family has called for the five Tacoma officers involved to be fired.
The officers remain on paid administrative leave until the Attorney General’s Office decides whether their actions were justified. They are Christopher Burbank; Matthew Collins; Masyih Ford; Timothy Rankine; and Armando Farinas.
Ellis’ family and attorney have also complained about the length of the investigation and review process.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department was in charge of the initial investigation, which it completed in about three months. But when it became public that an off-duty sheriff’s employee, Gary Sanders, held Ellis’ foot to help restrain him, state officials criticized the department for not previously disclosing the conflict of interest and not following provisions of a new law requiring independent investigations into deadly police force.
On June 17, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered the State Patrol to launch a new investigation into Ellis’ death. That investigation took about five months, and in November the State Patrol turned over a 2,169-page investigation to the AG’s Office.
An 11-member team was assembled to review the case, including Attorney General Bob Ferguson, two retired state court judges, an assistant attorney from a civil rights division and various deputy and assistant attorneys.
The team hired experts and since Feb. 23, when they said a charging decision would likely come by April, the team has spent 600 hours working on the case. They have interviewed witnesses, reviewed documents, conducted legal research, reviewed evidence and visited the intersection where Ellis was killed, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Ellis died at the intersection of 96th Street South and Ainsworth Avenue, where Burbank and Collins said they called out to him after seeing him try to grab a door handle on a moving car.
Police say Ellis was the aggressor, displaying “superhuman strength” by lifting Collins off the ground by his vest and throwing him to the ground. Burbank struck Ellis with the door of a patrol car, and the two officers struggled for several minutes to get Ellis in handcuffs.
Witnesses dispute the officers’ account and say Ellis was not aggressive and was trying to move into a position where he could breathe and fight off the officers’ punches. Ellis was struck with a Taser three times before police gained control of him.
Farinas, who arrived as backup, said he placed a spit mask over Ellis’ head because Ellis was being “assaultive” and trying to spit on officers.
A spit mask is made of a loose, breathable material and meant to keep people from spitting on or biting law enforcement officers.
It was estimated to have been on Ellis for six minutes, records say, but a sheriff’s detective later called the Medical Examiner to say that was an error and the spit mask was only on Ellis for 1-3 minutes.
The autopsy report lists the spit mask as a major factor in Ellis’ death.
“Physical restraint, positioning and the placement of a mask over the mouth is a significant factor, and possibly the most important factor,” Dr. Thomas Clark, the former Pierce County medical examiner, wrote in the report.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 11:30 AM.
