Three Tacoma Police Department officers have been charged in the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who died last year after being handcuffed and restrained.
Officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins were both charged with second-degree murder and Officer Timothy Rankine with first-degree manslaughter, the Washington State Attorney General announced in a press release.
Warrants have been issued for their arrests. The Tacoma Police Department did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.
Ellis, 33, died on March 3, 2020, after police stopped him while he was walking home. Authorities said at the time that he was allegedly harassing a woman at an intersection.
When police asked Ellis what he was doing, he told them that he had warrants and wanted to talk to to them, according to police. Ellis then repeatedly struck the patrol car, prompting the officers to call for backup before engaging in a struggle to detain him, police said.
“He picked up the officer by his vest and slam-dunked him on the ground,” Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, said previously.
Authorities said there was a struggle before police put Ellis in handcuffs on the ground. He could be heard on police scanner traffic saying “I can’t breathe,” after he was handcuffed.
At some point during the arrest, Ellis stopped breathing and lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office said Ellis died of respiratory arrest due to hypoxia as a result of physical restraint, KING reported. Contributing factors included methamphetamine intoxication and dilated cardiomyopathy, commonly known as an enlarged heart, the medical examiner said.
The Tacoma Police Union blasted the decision to bring charges as “a politically motivated witch hunt.”
“We look forward to trial,” the union said Thursday in a statement after the charges were announced. “An unbiased jury will find that the officers broke no laws and, in fact, acted in accordance with the law, their training, and Tacoma Police Department policies.”
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
