Special prosecutor: Tacoma police ignored Manuel Ellis’ calls for help and ‘let him die’

In closing arguments Monday afternoon in the historic trial of three Tacoma police officers charged with killing Manuel Ellis, prosecutors focused on the numerous times he said he couldn’t breathe during his fatal struggle with police.

“The most basic part of human existence: Breathe in, breathe out,” special prosecutor Patti Eakes for the Washington Attorney General’s Office told jurors.

“It’s so basic that we don’t even think about it, until we can’t breathe. And then, we fight for breath. We fight for breath because we want to live, because breath is life,” she said. “When any person tells us that we can’t breathe, we help them. It’s what reasonable people do because it’s so basic.”

Ellis, 33, died March 3, 2020, after telling police at least five times that he couldn’t breathe. The Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation caused by physical restraint.

Over the course of the nine-week trial, lawyers for the three officers have argued that the high level of methamphetamine and an enlarged heart discovered during Ellis’ autopsy were the true cause of his death.

“Each of the defendants knew it was a risk, because Manny Ellis told them over and over again that he couldn’t breathe. And each of the defendants chose to ignore him and let him die,” Eakes said.

Officers Matthew Collins, 40, Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, and Timothy Rankine, 35, are on trial for first-degree manslaughter. Collins and Burbank, the first officers to contact Ellis when they reportedly saw him reach for the door of a car as it passed through an intersection, are also charged with second-degree murder.

All three have pleaded not guilty, are free on bail and remain employed by the Tacoma Police Department on paid leave.

In legal wrangling outside the presence of the jury, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Brian Chushcoff ruled that the jury also has the option of convicting the officers of the lesser offense of second-degree manslaughter.

Collins and Rankine testified at trial; Burbank did not. Collins testified that the fatal struggle began when Ellis punched the window near where Burbank sat in the passenger’s side of their police cruiser. Burbank told detectives he knocked Ellis to the ground with the cruiser’s door when he thought Ellis was fixating on Collins.

Eyewitnesses said the officers were the aggressors, calling Ellis back as he was walking away, and then knocking him down with the patrol car door. Cellphone videos from two of them recorded Collins and Burbank handling Ellis roughly, even as he at one point held his hands up in an apparent act of submission. Lawyers for the officers say those witnesses only saw part of what happened and argued that Ellis continued to resist arrest even after he’d been handcuffed and had his wrists linked to his ankles with a strap. On the night he died, Ellis was also punched, zapped three times with a Taser, placed in a neck hold, knelt and sat upon by multiple officers and had a nylon spit hood placed over his face.

Rankine was the last to perch on Ellis’ back. He testified that he continued to sit on Ellis’ back even after hearing Ellis gasp his last words: “I can’t breathe.”

“If you’re talking to me, then you can breathe just fine,” Eakes quoted Rankine as saying during her closing argument. She said Rankine spent most of the nine minutes while medics were en route to the scene sitting on Ellis’ back while he was hogtied and prone.

Collins and Burbank denied ever hearing Ellis say he couldn’t breathe, but Collins can be heard on audio captured on a nearby home security camera responding, “Shut the [expletive] up,” after Ellis pleaded for air, which Eakes spotlighted during her closing argument.

Rankine’s partner, who was not charged, also testified that he heard Ellis say he could not breathe in the presence of Collins and Burbank.

By turning Ellis on his side for a longer time, sitting him up or placing him in a police car, Eakes said, the officers could have spared Ellis’ life.

“He didn’t need to die while he was tied up like an animal, with his pleas: ‘I can’t breathe, sir. Please. I can’t breathe,’” Eakes said.

During weeks of testimony, experts for the prosecution testified that the officers strayed from accepted police practices, used excessive force and caused Ellis’ death. Defense experts countered with testimony that the officers operated within policy, did not use excessive force and that drugs and poor health killed Ellis.

The defense focused heavily on Ellis’ prior arrests in 2015 and 2019 when he also was intoxicated on meth and struggled with police.

“Despite his troubles and the things you’ve heard in this case, [Ellis] is still a human being,” Eakes said. “He was loved. He was not an animal, and he was not a worthless human being.”

She said the charges are not an indictment of police in general, but rather “about these three officers and the choices they made.”

“They chose to treat Mr. Ellis like he was less than human … that’s why they face criminal charges in this case.”

Prosecutors don’t allege that the officers deliberately killed Ellis. Instead, the second-degree murder charges allege Burbank and Collins unlawfully assaulted and detained him, leading to his death. The manslaughter charges against all three officers accuse them of disregarding a substantial risk that death might occur and acting outside the judgment a reasonable person would use, resulting in Ellis’ death.

About 20 protestors gathered outside the courthouse chanting, “No justice, no peace” and “Justice for Manny Ellis,” during the court’s midday recess. Their voices echoed for blocks. Courthouse staff and other downtown workers gathered at windows and on sidewalks to watch after the clamor grabbed their attention.

The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday, when defense lawyers for the officers expect to present their closing arguments.

This story was originally published December 11, 2023 at 5:02 PM.