Attorneys for three Washington state police officers on trial in the 2020 death of a Black man argued Tuesday that Manuel Ellis died because of drug use and not excessive force, claiming that he “created his own death” in an incident that involved police choking, using a Taser and holding him facedown to the ground as he was handcuffed.
Ellis, 33, died March 3, 2020, after repeatedly telling police he couldn’t breathe during a struggle with officers in Tacoma that began as he was walking home. While authorities said Ellis was stopped because he allegedly harassed a woman at an intersection, multiple witnesses have refuted the narrative and said police were unprovoked when they used excessive force on the man. The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’s death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint.
Two of the Tacoma officers — Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, and Matthew Collins, 40 — are charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. A third officer, Timothy Rankine, 34, is charged with first-degree manslaughter. All three, who remain on paid leave with the Tacoma Police Department, have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail.
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During closing arguments in the officers’ nine-week trial, Wayne Fricke, an attorney representing Burbank, told the jury that Ellis’s addiction to methamphetamine caused him to be violent, paranoid and unpredictable. Fricke argued that the officers “were trying to defuse the situation in the beginning, and it spun out of control.”
“This is a situation where he created his own death,” Fricke said, according to the Associated Press. “It was his behavior that forced the officers to use force against him because he created a situation that required them to act.”
Fricke argued that prosecutors with the Washington attorney general’s office chose to “compound this tragedy” by charging the officers, and suggested that the decision to bring charges was politically motivated.
“No one wanted him to die, but ultimately he died, and that’s sad. We don’t compound that tragedy by convicting innocent people of these charges,” Fricke said. “It’s not based on the evidence, but it’s based on something else. This should not be a political decision.”
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The closing arguments from the defense, which continue Wednesday, came after special prosecutor Patty Eakes urged jurors this week to be skeptical of the officers depicting Ellis as the aggressor, arguing that eyewitnesses and video contradict the officers’ version of events.
“Manny Ellis told them, over and over and over again, that he couldn’t breathe. They heard him. And each of the defendants chose to ignore him and to let him die,” Eakes, who is prosecuting the case on behalf of the Washington attorney general’s office, said Monday. “They chose instead to treat him like an animal.”
The case is the first trial of Washington state officers charged in an on-duty death since voters approved a measure in 2018 that lowered the legal threshold for such crimes. If Burbank and Collins are convicted of second-degree murder, they could face up to life in prison. If Rankine is convicted of first-degree manslaughter, he could face more than 20 years in prison, according to state law.
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Fricke told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the case did not resemble the facts surrounding George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, which set off nationwide protests about racial justice and police brutality in 2020. Ellis’s death happened nearly three months before Floyd’s murder, and the charges against the Tacoma officers were brought in 2021 — more than a month after Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering Floyd.
“This is not a George Floyd case and that was clear from the very beginning,” he said, adding that the case is “totally different” from the one that convicted Chauvin. “If George Floyd had not happened, I don’t think this case would have been charged.”
Defense attorney Jared Ausserer, who represents Collins, agreed to an interview, but was not immediately available. Neither Eakes nor Mark Conrad, who represents Rankine, immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday morning.
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At around 11 p.m. on March 3, 2020, Ellis was walking home from a 7-Eleven when witnesses saw him talking casually with police officers in a car stopped at a red light. Witnesses told prosecutors that Ellis showed “no signs of aggression.” But seconds after Ellis walked away, Burbank “abruptly swung open the passenger door of the car, striking Ellis from behind and knocking him to his knees,” according to a report from the state attorney general.
Burbank and Collins, both Army veterans, later told supervisors that they observed Ellis trying to get into a random car. They said he then went up to the patrol car and began kicking and punching the vehicle and the windows. They claimed that when they got out of the car, Ellis attacked them and punched them.
But statements and videos from witnesses contradict police’s depiction of Ellis, who was heard crying as he was slammed to the pavement, struck multiple times by the officers and placed in a chokehold. After Ellis is stunned by a Taser twice, he was heard saying on a nearby home’s doorbell security camera: “Can’t breathe, sir. Can’t breathe.” With Ellis already handcuffed, Rankine allegedly placed one knee in the middle of Ellis’s spine and the other near the base of his neck.
The officers then tied Ellis’s legs together with a nylon strap and used another to connect it to his handcuffs — putting him in a “hogtie” position, the AG’s report said. The officers also placed a spit hood over his head, though instructions on the spit hood said it should not be used on someone “having difficulty breathing,” according to prosecutors.
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Ellis remained in the position for about six to nine minutes, prosecutors said. Soon after, Ellis was declared dead at the scene.
After more than a year of calls for action against the officers, charges were brought against Burbank, Collins and Rankine in May 2021.
Share this articleShareDuring the trial, Eakes played audio clips of the officers’ statements and compared them with the video and statements from six witnesses that contradicted the police narrative. In one instance, Eakes pointed out how Collins, who weighs about 230 pounds, said Ellis grabbed him by his vest, lifted him off his feet and tossed him to the ground like a child. Eakes mentioned another instance in which Burbank said Ellis hit him in the mouth, used “wild strikes” and was “assaultive” the entire time, even though witness videos show that Ellis’s legs never moved while he was on the ground.
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“They make Mr. Ellis out to be violent in ways you don’t see on the video,” Eakes said. “Why? They’re justifying the use of force that you can see happened in that video. Do you trust the video? Do you trust what the eyewitnesses say?” She added: “Is it believable anyway? I suggest to you it’s not. This isn’t a comic book.”
Fricke told The Post that “the video shows what it shows, but it doesn’t show everything,” saying that it left out much of the detail mentioned by the officers in their statements.
“It’s definitely lacking,” he said of the video.
Fricke noted that it was clear to him and the attorneys early on that Ellis died of drugs instead of excessive force. Heart disease and methamphetamine intoxication were listed as lesser contributing causes of Ellis’s death.
Ausserer, Collins’s attorney, also questioned the credibility of the witnesses during his closing argument.
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“If there was probable cause, there is no felony and we’re done,” Ausserer said in court, according to the AP. “The tragedy of his death doesn’t make the actions of Officer Collins criminal.”
Closing arguments are expected to conclude Wednesday before the jury begins deliberations, Fricke said. He reiterated to The Post that the case is not about race.
“They are not racist,” the attorney said of the officers. “These are good officers and good people.”
Jaclyn Peiser contributed to this report.
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