WSP Releases Update Into Manuel Ellis Death Investigation

TACOMA, WA — After a month on the case, the Washington State Patrol has issued one of their first updates on their investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis.

Ellis died on March 3 while being taken into custody by four Tacoma police officers. Earlier this year the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office found that the officers had killed Ellis, fatally choking him while trying to take him into custody. The medical examiner ultimately ruled that Ellis' death was a homicide.

According to the WSP's latest update, state patrol has put together an Independent Investigation Team, or IIT, to investigate the police use of force that killed Ellis. WSP also claims they have designated a family liaison to better communicate with Ellis' family during the investigation, and have selected three community representatives who will vet all the IIT members who will be assigned to the case.

All of those processes are required by law thanks to Initiative 940, a police reform initiative passed by voters in 2018 which broadly requires all deadly use of force by police to be investigated by a separate, independent law enforcement agency.

WSP's update is also noteworthy because it is exactly what the Pierce County Sheriff's Department failed to do: initially, Pierce County deputies had been called in to investigate Ellis' death, but months into their investigation the state discovered that Pierce County deputies had not appointed community members to be a part of the review process and had failed to set up a liaison with Ellis' immediate family as required by law. Additionally, it was discovered that Pierce County deputy was on scene when Ellis was killed, meaning their investigation had not been truly independent and calling the objectivity of their work into question.

After all that information came to light, Tacoma leaders called on Gov. Inslee to hand the investigation to another law enforcement agency which he did, asking Washington State Patrol to take over and finish what the Pierce County Sheriff's Department could not. The revelation that Pierce County deputies had failed to uphold the legal standards of I-940 also led the state Attorney General Bob Ferguson to launch a new probe into every single investigation into the use of deadly force by law enforcement in 2020.

Now that WSP has begun their investigation into Ellis death, they say the next step is to "develop and follow an investigative plan that will ensure all the facts of the case are gathered systematically and thoroughly." Troopers say going forward they will begin providing weekly updates on their investigation to the public on their website. Once it is finished, the investigation will be submitted to the Attorney General for the final review.

Ellis' death has been met with widespread outcry from the community. In recordings of the incident, Ellis can be heard telling officers he cannot breathe, before ultimately dying. The video shows an incident strikingly similar to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, another Black man killed by police whose death served as the catalyst for an ongoing series of nationwide protests against police brutality. Since Ellis death community members have put together several vigils and rallies in his memory, and a GofundMe to support his family has raised more than $93,000 dollars in his memory.

Meanwhile, the four Tacoma Police officers on scene at the time of Ellis' death, 34-year-old Christopher Burbank, 37-year-old Matthew Collins, 28-year-old Masyih Ford, and 31-year-old Timothy Rankine, have all been placed on leave pending the investigation.