3 Officers Charged In Killing Of Manuel Ellis

TACOMA, WA — Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed felony charges against three Tacoma police officers in connection with the killing of Manuel Ellis.

The attorney general on Thursday announced that officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins are being charged with second-degree murder. If convicted, both could be sentenced to between 10 and 18 years in prison.

The third officer, Timothy Rankine, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter, which typically results in sentences between 6.5 and 8.5 years in prison if the defendant has no prior criminal history.

The Attorney General's Office says all three charges have been filed in Pierce County Superior Court. The three officers have since been arrested.

Ellis, 33, a Black Tacoma man, was killed while being restrained by police on March 3, 2020.

Probable cause documents from the Attorney General's Office give a more comprehensive look into what may have happened that night. According to the documents, Ellis had been walking to a 7-Eleven near his home for a late-night snack. During his return trip home at around 11:20 p.m., officers Burbank and Collins confronted Ellis at the intersection of 96th Street South and Ainsworth Avenue South.

Witnesses told the office that, following an apparently respectful and calm conversation, Ellis turned to walk away when officer Burbank swung the passenger door of his patrol vehicle open, hitting Ellis in the back and knocking him to his knees, the documents said.

At that point, several witnesses began recording the incident. According to the charging documents, those videos show the two officers tackle and beat Ellis, striking him in the head at least four times. The officers then placed a neck restraint on Ellis, used a stun gun on him and called for backup despite little resistance from Ellis, the documents said.

Rankine was one of the officers who responded to that call. Once on scene, the attorney general's office said, Rankine applied pressure to Ellis' back, which he kept up even after Ellis had been hogtied and had a spit hood placed over his head.

Recordings reportedly show Ellis repeatedly telling the officers he cannot breathe before he died. The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office would later rule his death a homicide due to hypoxia. As the AGO notes, despite Ellis' repeated pleas that he could not breathe, none of the officers ever called for medical assistance until it was too late.

Following Ellis' death both Burbank and Collins told other officers that Ellis had been the aggressor, which the AGO says is contradicted by both witness statements and the video recordings of the event.

The Attorney General Office's review ends by concluding that the three officers violated the Tacoma Police Department’s use-of-force policy, and that Burbank and Collins "intentionally" and "recklessly" assaulted Ellis leading to his death, which the office says justifies their more severe murder charges.

The charging announcement brings some long-overdue closure to a case that has been significantly delayed several times. Initially, the Ellis investigation had been placed in the hands of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, which handled the case for several months until it was discovered they had had a deputy on scene at the time of Ellis' death — meaning the department was not legally independent enough to objectively handle the investigation.

The case was then handed to the Washington State Patrol, which began the investigation again from scratch, and ultimately handed it to the state in November. The attorney general's charging decision was then also delayed multiple times as its team continued to gather further evidence and testimony.

Though Ellis' family has expressed disappointment at the prolonged investigation, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards says it may ultimately have been for the best.

"I know it has taken much, much longer to get to this point than any of us ever expected or wanted, but I also believe it allowed for the thorough, independent review that Manny Ellis' family and the Tacoma community deserved," Woodards said at a news conference Thursday.

The attorney general's office says its charging announcement marks the first time the office has criminally charged police officers in connection with the illegal use of deadly force. Though the charges have now been formally filed, the investigation remains ongoing.

All three of the charged officers remain on paid leave, though Mayor Woodards has expressed a desire to remove the officers from the force and the city's payroll. Tacoma City Manager Elizabeth Pauli and Interim Chief of Police Mike Ake have announced a separate internal investigation into the conduct of all five officers who were on scene at the time of Ellis' death, which Woodards says she and other local leaders will be watching closely.

"The deputy mayor, the city council and I will support the city manager and her staff effort to begin a separate administrative review to determine whether there is cause for additional disciplinary action of the five officers who were involved," Woodards said.

Meanwhile, the Tacoma police union has released a statement calling the charges a "politically motivated witch hunt."

Following the AG's announcement, the Tacoma City Council released a joint statement on the decision, reading in part:

"Today, our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Manuel Ellis. They have had to endure the heartbreaking loss of their son, brother, father and friend.

"The length of time this investigation has taken has weighed heavily on us all, and we are grieved by what the family and loved ones of Manuel Ellis have been through this past year. What has come into sharp focus at this point, in the history of our city and our nation, is that the current culture of law enforcement needs to evolve. It must, if we are to meet the needs of community members that we, as policy makers, are sworn to serve."