Decision day looms on fate of cops tied to Manuel Ellis homicide. Is Tacoma ready?
Less than one week, and counting. That’s the time left before the clock turns to May 27, the Washington Attorney General’s self-imposed deadline to complete its review of the Tacoma police homicide of Manuel Ellis and issue a charging decision for the five officers involved.
To have a real date to circle on the calendar — the AG says it will release its findings next Thursday, maybe sooner — is a welcome development.
Ongoing delays have left Ellis’ loved ones deeply upset. Who wouldn’t be, under the same circumstances? Most recently, the AG announced a four-to-six week setback on March 31 — more than a year after the 33-year-old Black man died, handcuffed and hobbled, on a dark, midnight street on March 3, 2020.
Even so, we can’t discount that the state’s chief legal office inherited a five-month, 2,169-page investigation from the State Patrol last November. Nor can we minimize that AG staff interviewed new witnesses and examined additional forensic evidence, all to ensure that justice is served for everyone involved.
The review team had reams of information to shovel through in their six-month inquiry, and a community impatient for answers, no thanks to Pierce County’s mismanaged initial investigation of Ellis’ death.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson knows very well that the Ellis family and greater Tacoma community will brook no further delays.
That means the mirror will soon turn back to our city. Will Tacoma leaders, public safety officials and residents be prepared for the charging decision, whichever way it goes?
That’s our hope and prayer as the clock winds down to May 27.
This much is incontrovertible: Our community has been on tenterhooks since a year ago, when details of Ellis’ death from oxygen deprivation came to light through a TNT report. Days earlier, George Floyd died on a Memorial Day that will live in infamy, taking his last breaths while pinned under a Minneapolis cop’s knee.
Tacoma Police Department officers have said that Ellis, who had meth in his system, showed “superhuman” strength and had to be restrained for his own protection. The family presents a different picture: that of a young man suffering from mental illness and addiction who’d played music at his church earlier that night.
Much has been accomplished in the past 12 months. Floyd’s family agreed to a $27 million settlement with the City of Minneapolis. Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murder and manslaughter and awaits sentencing.
A wide-ranging package of police reform bills was signed into law this week in our state, the names of Floyd and Ellis invoked often as the bills gained momentum.
Absent from the accomplishments: One iota of resolution for the Ellis family.
As the suspense mounts, schedules have been adjusted, rituals rearranged.
Mayor Victoria Woodards moved back her annual State of the State address to May, not wanting to distract from the charging decision that was expected in April. Some details of the pending announcement remain frustratingly fuzzy. For example, will the AG disclose the findings by press release or news conference. (As of this week, they told us they haven’t decided.)
It’s natural to wonder how the state and city will communicate in the coming days, and how much advance notice the city will receive.
Statements given to us by AG and TPD spokespersons this week don’t shed much light.
“We have been providing regular status updates to Mayor Woodards,” the AG’s office said. “We will provide additional information to appropriate agencies as we get closer to announcing a charging decision.”
TPD was similarly vague: “When the Attorney General’s Office releases its findings, the Tacoma Police Department is ready to protect and serve the community, including insuring that people can peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights safely within the City of Tacoma.”
That last part is key. We certainly hope that any demonstrations are peaceful in nature. At the same time, pent-up anger at centuries of Black oppression can’t be expected to emerge in neat and tidy packages.
Whatever happens, next week’s decision must begin the healing process this community desperately needs and serve as a catalyst to end the bloody wave of unarmed Americans — many of them Black — dying at the hands of cops.
Bottling up emotions for a year isn’t easy. It’s up to us, Tacoma, to release them in a way that makes our city proud.
News Tribune editorials reflect the views of our Editorial Board and are written by opinion editor Matt Misterek. Other board members are: Stephanie Pedersen, News Tribune president and editor; Matt Driscoll, local columnist; and Jim Walton, community representative. The Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom and does not influence the work of news reporting and editing staffs. For questions about the board or our editorials, email matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.