TACOMA — The Washington State Patrol has finished its investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who died while being restrained by Tacoma police officers.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Friday that his office will decide whether criminal charges will be filed in connection with the death.
Gov. Jay Inslee assigned the case to a special investigative team in June after it became public that a deputy from the previous lead investigation agency had responded to the scene where Ellis died on March 3. That Pierce County sheriff’s deputy had “participated in restraining” Ellis, Inslee said, amounting to “an incurable conflict.”
Ellis, 33, died after Tacoma police blocked his airway during an encounter as he walked home from a convenience store.
Ferguson gave no estimate of when charging decisions could be made, The Seattle Times reported. With its investigation, the State Patrol did not offer a recommendation on charging any of the officers who restrained Ellis on the night he died.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the death a homicide, concluding that Ellis died from a lack of oxygen due to physical restraint.
Ellis’ death — just weeks before George Floyd died in Minneapolis after a white officer pressed a knee to his neck, triggering a nationwide reckoning on race and policing — made Ellis’ name synonymous with pleas for justice at protests in the Pacific Northwest. It has drawn attention to gaps in Washington’s new police accountability law and inspired calls for legislation aimed at reducing deaths at the hands of law enforcement.
Early statements from law enforcement that cast Ellis as the aggressor on the night he died have been contradicted by eyewitnesses. Two eyewitnesses who made video of parts of the fatal interaction have come forward with identical stories. They say police attacked Ellis without provocation.
