Jury clears 3 Tacoma officers of all charges in 2020 death of Manny Ellis

Three Washington state police officers were cleared of all charges Thursday in the death of Manuel “Manny” Ellis, a Black man, in 2020.

The jury acquitted Christopher Burbank, 38, and Matthew Collins, 40 of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. The jury also acquitted Timothy Rankine, 34, of manslaughter charges. All three men had pleaded not guilty.

Lawyers for the three police officers told the jury last week that Ellis’ death was the result of drug use, not excessive force that included officers choking and shocking him and holding him facedown.

Wayne Fricke, who represents Burbank, said last week that Ellis was addicted to methamphetamine, and it caused him to be violent, unpredictable, and paranoid.

“This is a situation where he created his own death,” Fricke said during closing arguments in the officers’ nine-week trial. “It was his behavior that forced the officers to use force against him because he created a situation that required them to act.”

Ellis, who repeatedly told the officers, “Can’t breathe, sir,” died March 3, 2020, nearly three months before George Floyd’s death would spark an international outcry against police brutality. 

This was the first trial of officers charged in a suspect’s death since voters approved a state measure in 2018 removing a requirement that prosecutors must prove police acted with malice.