Alexis Krell
The News Tribune
The Tacoma officers charged in the death of Manuel Ellis appeared in court Friday for arraignment.
The Washington State Attorney General’s Office charged 38-year-old Matthew J. Collins and 35-year-old Christopher Shane Burbank with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Timothy Eugene Rankine, 32, was charged with first-degree manslaughter.
Not guilty pleas were entered on behalf of all three, per procedure.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Schwartz set bail at $100,000 each for Collins and Burbank and Rankine. Prosecutors asked for $1 million bail.
The three officers turned themselves in and were booked into the Pierce County Jail Thursday.
Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died March 3, 2020 at 96th Street South and Ainsworth Avenue as police restrained him. He’d been walking home from getting water and donuts at a convenience store after playing drums at church.
Video showed him saying: “Can’t breathe, sir, can’t breathe.”
He died from lack of oxygen and his death was ruled a homicide.
The charges came after a six-month review and investigation by the Attorney General’s Office.
Witnesses disputed the police account of what happened.
They “remember seeing a peaceful, apparently respectful conversation, with no signs of aggression from Ellis,” who tried to walk away,” charging papers said.
Police said Burbank and Collins called to Ellis after he tried to grab the door handle of a slow-moving car, that he punched the window of their patrol car and that he used “superhuman strength” to lift Collins and throw him to the ground.
“The civilian witnesses’ accounts are corroborated by the video evidence,” the charging papers said. “The video depicts Ellis struggling at times against the officers’ restraints, but does not show Ellis attempting to strike the officers at any point.”
Charging papers give this account of the encounter, which lasted four minutes:
Burbank hit Ellis with his patrol car door, knocking him down, and got on top of him. He lifted Ellis, drove him into the ground and hit him. Collins punched Ellis in the head and put him in a neck restraint, and Burbank tased him.
He was tased three times in total.
When Rankine arrived he put his knees on Ellis’ back.
“If you’re talking to me, you can breathe just fine,” he told him.
Police hogtied Ellis, and he remained face down for six to nine minutes, which is when firefighters arrived.
Ellis was pronounced dead at the scene.
The autopsy report said a mesh spit mask Officer Armando Farinas allegedly put over Ellis’ head was “a significant factor, and possibly the most important factor” in his death, with methamphetamine and heart disease listed as contributing factors.
The Medical Examiner said he didn’t know when he did the autopsy that someone had been on top of Ellis as long as Rankine had.
Burbank, Collins, Rankine, Farinas and Officer Masyih Ford, who also responded, have been on paid administrative leave.
The Attorney General’s Office did not file charges against Farinas or Ford.
The Tacoma Police Department said it will do an internal review of the officers involved.
“This will also include determining the departmental status of the involved officers in accordance with departmental policies and procedures, contractual obligations and following due process,” Interim Police Chief Mike Ake said in a statement Thursday.
The agency has not said if or when the officers who were not charged will return to work.
