Tacoma police officers acquitted of charges in Manuel Ellis’ death

TACOMA – A Pierce County jury Thursday acquitted three Tacoma police officers charged in the death of Manuel Ellis, concluding a grueling, historic trial that tested the state’s new police accountability law.

The jury considered second-degree murder charges against officers Matthew Collins, 40, and Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, and manslaughter charges against Officer Timothy Rankine, 35, as well as Collins and Burbank.

The acquittal marked the dramatic conclusion of a nearly four-year saga that began March 3, 2020, when Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died in a south Tacoma intersection after struggling with and repeatedly telling police he couldn’t breathe.

In the turbulent summer of 2020, Ellis’ name was invoked alongside George Floyd’s during sustained protests in the Pacific Northwest demanding more equitable policing.

In the courtroom, the officers hugged their lawyers after the verdict was read, while Ellis’ family quickly left the courthouse. When Collins’ lawyer asked Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff if they could leave, the judge said, “I would just be careful. A lot of emotions are running high right now.”

The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’ death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint. Lawyers for the officers argued at trial that the high level of methamphetamine in Ellis’ system combined with a heart condition killed him and that the officers were justified in aggressively subduing Ellis because he fought them with what they described as extraordinary strength.

The jury, with seven men and five women, deliberated for a total of three days before alerting the court of their verdict Thursday, although the composition of the jury changed twice this week as alternates were swapped in. Nine jurors are white, two are Black and one identifies as mixed-race, Asian and white.

Only six deaths at the hands of law enforcement have resulted in charges against police officers in the state over the past century. The last time three police officers were charged in Washington for a death was 85 years ago.

The officers and their attorneys were not immediately available for comment. The Washington Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, said it would not be making prosecutors available to the media.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Attorney General Bob Ferguson thanked his legal team. “I know the Ellis family is hurting, and my heart goes out to them.”

Leslie Cushman, founder of the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability and architect of Initiative 940, Washington’s landmark police accountability initiative passed by voters in 2018, said she was “exceedingly disappointed” by the verdict.

“Mr. Ellis’ criminal history, medical history, personal history was in front of everyone to see, and we never heard of the misconduct of police or their training issues. It was very unfair.”

Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, who served as the Snohomish County sheriff and worked on police accountability legislation, said the verdict offers an opportunity to “learn how to make the criminal justice system safer.”

“There are no winners in a case like this, but I respect that the officers were afforded due process,” Lovick said. He added that he hopes the outcome doesn’t spark protests.

“The jury heard all of the evidence. They heard things that we didn’t hear. They were there every single day of the trial, and I just try my best to convey that we have to respect the decision of the jury,” he said.

The 10-week trial focused on several key questions: how the fatal struggle started, how much force was necessary to subdue Ellis and how officers responded when Ellis said at least five times that he couldn’t breathe.

On the night of the fatal struggle, Collins and Burbank, both five-year veterans of the Tacoma Police Department, say they saw Ellis reach for the door of a passing car in an intersection, and when they tried to question Ellis about it, he turned aggressive.

Collins, testifying in his own defense, said Ellis demonstrated “superhuman strength” by lifting him off the ground and throwing him through the air. Burbank, who did not testify at trial, had told detectives a slightly different version.

Their accounts were undermined by three eyewitnesses who testified at trial. Two of them recorded cellphone videos of Collins and Burbank roughly handling Ellis and testified that Ellis was walking away from the police vehicle when he appeared to be summoned back. They said Ellis did nothing to provoke Burbank to strike him with the vehicle door or the violence they recorded.

Their videos showed Ellis being struck by both officers, placed in a neck hold by Collins, stunned three times with a Taser by Burbank and then pinned in a prone position under the officers’ weight.

The detention and violent efforts to restrain Ellis – even after some evidence showed he was subdued – were the basis for the murder charges. The manslaughter charges alleged Collins and Burbank acted recklessly with the knowledge that their actions carried a substantial risk of death to Ellis, mainly by bearing down on Ellis while he was on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind his back.

The eyewitness videos and a nearby home security camera captured dramatic audio of Ellis saying he couldn’t breathe at least five times. Collins and Burbank denied they ever heard him say those words, claiming Ellis only made sounds that they compared to an animal.

However, the videos grabbed a moment when Ellis can be heard pleading for air and someone responds by telling him to shut up. Collins admitted on the witness stand that he said it, although he claimed not to have heard what Ellis specifically said.

The manslaughter charge against Rankine, who was with the first backup unit to arrive at the scene, was based on his actions after Ellis was already handcuffed. Rankine testified that he sat on Ellis’ back to control him and remained there even after he heard Ellis say he couldn’t breathe.

Rankine’s partner, Masyih Ford, who was not charged in Ellis’ death, testified that Ellis said he couldn’t breathe in the presence of Burbank and Collins.

Ellis’ struggles with mental health and addiction were laid bare in testimony that represented the first courtroom test of I-940, which removed “malicious intent” as a prerequisite for charging police officers with crimes for causing on-duty deaths.

Reactions to the verdict in the closely watched trial moved swiftly. Roger Rogoff, director of the state’s recently created Office of Independent Investigations, said he did not want to comment directly on the jury’s verdict but expressed sympathy for the Ellis family.

“I continue to have empathy and sympathy for the family of Manny Ellis,” said Rogoff, whose agency is tasked with investigating police shootings. “Anybody who loses a child in that way, it’s tragic, and they’re living with that forever. My heart and our office’s heart goes out to them. I also am aware that the law enforcement officers involved are also impacted significantly, and so I am glad that the trial is over for all people involved.”

“But other than that I’m just hopeful that the community can move forward and that we can do these investigations better than they’ve been done in the past,” he said.

Cushman said she didn’t know what this verdict means for police accountability moving forward.

“I believe that if we had a verdict that held these officers accountable, we may have had some momentum that would have changed police culture,” she said. “We are left without accountability for what many of us think was brutal, unnecessary, violent behavior. We’re appalled at the verdict.”