Manuel Ellis

Manuel “Manny” Ellis, 33, died in a south Tacoma, Washington intersection on March 3, 2020, after Tacoma police officers tackled, punched, shocked him with a Taser, and restrained him face-down while he repeatedly told them he could not breathe. The Pierce County medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint. Washington's attorney general charged three officers in 2021 — the first time the state's AG had criminally charged officers for unlawful use of deadly force, using a new voter-approved police accountability law. After a nine-week trial, a Pierce County jury acquitted all three officers of every charge on December 21, 2023. The officers each subsequently received $500,000 to voluntarily leave the department. No one has ever been convicted in Ellis's death.

Tacoma, WA · Pierce County County

• 2020: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The confrontation, restraint, and Ellis's death, captured partly on a bystander's video, a doorbell camera, and police dispatch audio in which Ellis is heard repeatedly saying he could not breathe.
• The Pierce County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint.
• Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson charged officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank with second-degree murder and manslaughter, and Officer Timothy Rankine with manslaughter, in May 2021.
• A Pierce County jury acquitted all three officers of every charge on December 21, 2023, after a trial described as the largest single trial against law enforcement for an in-custody death since 1938.
• Defense attorneys argued at trial that methamphetamine intoxication and a heart condition, not the officers' restraint, caused Ellis's death.
• Following the acquittal, the Tacoma Police Department found none of the three officers had violated the department's use-of-force policy in effect at the time; all three subsequently received $500,000 separation payments to leave the department.

• Whether the combination of restraint techniques and Ellis's underlying physical state was the actual mechanism of death, as the defense argued, or whether the restraint itself was the primary cause, as the medical examiner's ruling and prosecution argued, was contested by expert witnesses on both sides and not resolved beyond the acquittal.
• The specific sequence of the initial contact — including what exactly officers observed before deciding to pursue and restrain Ellis — was disputed between witness accounts and the officers' testimony.
• The jury's specific reasoning for acquitting on every charge, across three different defendants and multiple counts, is not public, as with all jury deliberations.

• The Seattle Times — “Tacoma police officers acquitted of charges in Manuel Ellis' death”
• CNN — “3 Tacoma police officers found not guilty on all charges in death of Black man in police custody”
• NBC News — “Washington state officers acquitted in death of Manuel Ellis to receive $500K to leave police department”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs