Ellis, recently back from church, had walked to a convenience store to get a late-night snack: powdered, raspberry-filled donuts. The encounter began after Burbank and Collins reported seeing Ellis trying to get into occupied cars at a red light. “An unbiased jury will not allow these fine public servants to be sacrificed at the altar of public sentiment.” “We are disappointed the facts were ignored in favor of what appears to be a politically motivated witch hunt,” the Tacoma Police Union said in a written statement. Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately return messages seeking comment. The case marks the first time the attorney general's office has charged police officers with unlawful use of deadly force, Ferguson said.įive Tacoma officers have been on paid home leave pending the charging decision, and Ferguson said the investigation is continuing. state that they never saw Ellis strike at the officers.” “All three civilian witnesses at the intersection. “Ellis was not fighting back,” the probable cause statement said. His final words - “I can’t breathe, sir!” - were captured by a home security camera, as was the retort from one of the officers: “Shut the (expletive) up, man.” The death made Ellis’ name synonymous with pleas for justice at protests in the Pacific Northwest.
The Pierce County medical examiner called Ellis' death a homicide and attributed it to lack of oxygen from being restrained, with an enlarged heart and methamphetamine intoxication as contributing factors. Rankine, who is described as Asian in court documents, is accused of putting pressure on Ellis’ back as he said he couldn’t breathe.Įllis, 33, died on MaTasered, handcuffed and hogtied, with his face covered by a spit hood - just weeks before George Floyd’s death under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer triggered a nationwide reckoning on race and policing. Witnesses reported seeing Burbank and Collins, who are both white, attack Ellis without provocation, according to a probable cause statement filed in Pierce County Superior Court.
The three were in custody by Thursday evening, Ferguson's office said, with their arraignments set for Friday. SEATTLE (AP) - The Washington state attorney general on Thursday charged two Tacoma police officers with murder and another with manslaughter in the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who died after repeatedly telling them he couldn’t breathe as he was being restrained.Īttorney General Bob Ferguson filed charges of second-degree murder against Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, and first-degree manslaughter against Timothy Rankine.
0 kommentar(er)
