Two Tacoma Police Officers Charged With Murder In Death Of Manuel Ellis

SEATTLE (AP) – The Washington state attorney general has filed murder and other charges against two police officers in the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who died after telling the Tacoma officers who were restraining him that he couldn’t breathe.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson charged officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins with second-degree murder and Timothy Rankine with first-degree manslaughter.

The charges were filed in Pierce County Superior Court.

The 33-year-old Ellis died on March 3, 2020, in handcuffs from lack of oxygen caused by being restrained.

Ellis died just weeks before George Floyd’s death under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer triggered a nationwide reckoning on race and policing.