Woodards Calls For Firing Of Officers Involved In Ellis' Death

TACOMA, WA — Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards is calling for the firing of all four officers involved in the death of Manuel Ellis.

"The officers who committed this crime should be fired, and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Woodards said at a news conference Thursday night. "I am demanding tonight that the Pierce County Sheriff review and confirm every action taken by each officer. I demand that the sheriff provide details of the actions of each officer on the scene, and I am then directing the city manager to fire each officer involved."

Tacoma will also be considering an independent review into Ellis' death in a special meeting Friday afternoon.

According to the Tacoma Police Department, the four officers on scene were 34-year-old Christopher Burbank, 37-year-old Matthew Collins, 28-year-old Masyih Ford, and 31-year-old Timothy Rankine. All four were placed on leave Wednesday morning when the Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled that their attempts to handcuff and restrain Manual Ellis had killed him, and ruled his death a homicide.

In her address Thursday night, Woodards said she was also calling for Tacoma Police Department officers be fitted with body cams, noting that too often it takes a full video of an incident for black families to get justice when their family members are killed by police.

"We have waited way to long, and we have heard way too many excuses," said Woodards.

She said that the continual way in which police brutality has disproportionately affected black Americans was a personal issue for her.

"I don't get to take this skin color off every day, I don't get to come out a different person and while I am mayor, I am still black. I am still treated as an African-American woman, I am still looked at as an African-American woman, and my life could be taken, and today it stops in Tacoma," Woodards said.

Ellis was killed while police restrained him on March 3. Officers say he had been violent, banging on their car and trying to fight, so they had handcuffed and restrained him to calm him down. Ellis was a struggling addict and the medical examiner's office did find methamphetamine in his system, but say it was only a factor in his death and not the primary cause of it. They ruled the death was caused by "respiratory arrest due to hypoxia due to physical restraint."

Ellis' death has been noted to be remarkably similar to death of George Floyd, another black man killed while being restrained by police in Minneapolis, and whose death was the catalyst for an ongoing series of nationwide protests. Both arrests were caught on video and in both films the men being restrained can be heard telling officers they cannot breathe, shortly before they choke to death.

Near the end of her address Thursday Woodards also showed solidarity with protesters across Tacoma and the country calling for systemic change.

"I call on my community, the citizens of Tacoma, to stand with us, to stand by us, and to continue to hold us accountable to take the actions that you elected us to take," Woodards said. "We are in uncharted waters."

Related stories:

Tacoma Considers Independent Review Of Manuel Ellis' Death

Medical Examiner Rules Manuel Ellis' Death Homicide