3 Tacoma Police Officers Cleared in Death of Black Man

A jury found three Tacoma police officers not guilty on Thursday of all criminal charges in the death of Manuel “Manny” Ellis, a Black man who died in police custody in 2020 after pleading that he could not breathe.

One officer, Timothy Rankine, was acquitted of first-degree manslaughter. The other two officers, Christopher Burbank, and Matthew Collins, were acquitted of charges of second-degree murder. All three had pleaded not guilty and had faced up to life in prison. Officers Burbank, 35, and Collins, 38, are white. Office Rankine, 32, is Asian.

The prosecutors accused the three police officers of using deadly force on Mr. Ellis, 33, while arresting him on Mar. 3, 2020, when they punched him, squeezed his neck, pressed on his back and placed a hood over his head. Prosecutors said that audio footage captured Ellis saying he could not breathe.

His death occurred just three months before George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis. Mr. Floyd, who is also Black, had also pleaded “I can’t breathe” as a police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.

Bob Ferguson, the Washington attorney general, said in a statement on X, “I know the Ellis family is hurting, and my heart goes out to them.”

Prosecutors said that several officers on the scene had recalled hearing Officers Burbank and Collins say they had seen Mr. Ellis trying to get into a car and then hit their police car. That account, however, was contradicted by three witnesses, none of whom saw Mr. Ellis hit the police car or the officers at any point, prosecutors said.

The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’ death a homicide, caused by oxygen starvation due to physical restraint, with methamphetamine intoxication and heart disease being contributing factors.