Before George Floyd, there was Manuel Ellis, the black man who died after being arrested in Tacoma, Washington. His last words were, “I can’t breathe.”
On Thursday, prosecutors filed murder charges against two of the police officers. A third faces first-degree manslaughter.
Police observed Ellis, who was 33 years old with a history of mental illness, bang on the window of a vehicle stopped at an intersection on March 3rd, 2020. Ellis then approached their police cruiser. A scuffle ensued. Police claim Ellis was “combative.”
A bystander captured the encounter on video. In one clip, the officers are seen punching Ellis. The bystander shouts “Stop. Oh my God, stop hitting him. Just arrest him.”
Police eventually handcuffed Ellis and placed a “spit hood,” a device used to keep someone from spitting or biting, over his mouth.
While restrained, Ellis complained that he couldn’t breathe. Police claim they called for medical assistance just four minutes after the encounter began. Ellis eventually died. The Pierce County medical examiner called his death a homicide caused by “hypoxia due to physical restraint,” and noted that methamphetamine intoxication and heart disease were factors in his death.
Police officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins now face second-degree murder charges. They are both white. Timothy Rankine faces manslaughter. He is Asian.
The Seattles Times contextualizes the charge, announced by Attorney General Bob Ferguson:
Ferguson’s announcement bucked a historic trend in Washington state, where police officers almost never face criminal prosecution for deaths they cause on the job. Before the charges in Ellis’ death, just three law enforcement officers had been prosecuted in the past 40 years for killing someone while on duty.
