TACOMA — Eyewitness testimony in the historic trial of three Tacoma police officers accused of killing Manuel Ellis has presented jurors with a crucial choice: believe their version that the officers unnecessarily started the fatal struggle, or believe accounts of the officers, who say Ellis provoked it.
A witness called by the officers’ attorneys who was expected to undercut those eyewitness accounts instead testified Tuesday afternoon that investigators for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department attributed statements to him that he never made. The statements would have bolstered the officers’ defense.
“I told (detectives) exactly what I saw: There were two officers having trouble subduing the suspect,” testified Shad Hayes, who lived about a half-block from the site where Ellis died on March 3, 2020.
However, Hayes was adamant that statements a detective claimed he made were incorrect. Hayes said he never told the detective that Ellis appeared intoxicated or that he heard bystanders arguing.
“I didn’t say any of this to the detective,” Hayes testified. “I don’t remember saying any of this.”
Pierce County Sheriff’s Lt. Byron Brockway, the detective who interviewed Hayes, testified earlier in the trial that he changed the designation of his investigation into Ellis’ death from “death investigation” to “aggravated assault of a public official” because he believed the Tacoma officers who characterized Ellis as the aggressor.
Before its investigation was concluded due to a conflict of interest, the sheriff’s department never interviewed the eyewitnesses who testified that the officers were the aggressors.
Just before his death, Ellis told police at least five times that he couldn’t breathe while he was restrained under the weight of a carousel of officers. The Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint.
Lawyers for the officers on trial have challenged that ruling and have pointed to the high level of methamphetamine in Ellis’ system and his enlarged heart as the true causes of his death.
Officers Matthew Collins, 40, Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, and Timothy Rankine, 34, are charged with first-degree manslaughter. Collins and Burbank face additional charges of second-degree murder.
Collins and Burbank tell different versions of how the struggle with Ellis started, but they are consistent in characterizing Ellis as the aggressor, telling detectives they saw Ellis reach for the door handle of a passing car in an intersection.
Three eyewitnesses, two of whom provided cellphone videos that have served as key evidence against the officers, say Collins and Burbank were the aggressors and they saw Ellis do nothing to provoke the police.
The videos show Collins placing Ellis in a neck hold, slamming him to the ground, repeatedly striking him with elbows or fists and placing a knee on his neck while he’s face down on the asphalt. Burbank is shown punching Ellis and delivering a series of Taser strikes as Ellis holds up his hands in what an expert witness for the prosecution called a sign of submission.
Collins and Burbank told detectives they never heard Ellis say he couldn’t breathe, but a home security camera captured audio of Ellis pleading that he couldn’t breathe. Someone responded: “Shut the [expletive] up, man.” Burbank and Collins were the only officers present.
Rankine, who arrived minutes later, sat on Ellis’s back while his hands were cuffed behind him. Rankine told detectives he heard Ellis say he couldn’t breathe but didn’t believe him and continued to sit with his weight on Ellis’s back. Prosecution experts testified that the series of officers placing weight on Ellis’s back while he lay prone killed him.
During opening statements, defense lawyers for the officers touted Hayes and another witness who testified Tuesday afternoon, Kennett Ashford-White, as counterweights to eyewitnesses called by the prosecution who characterized officers as the aggressors.
While both Hayes and Ashford-White said Ellis was resisting arrest, neither testified that Ellis struck, kicked or otherwise threatened officers. Both said police were in control of Ellis by the time Rankine and other backup officers arrived to assist Burbank and Collins.
Hayes testified that he came outside to see what was happening after noticing flashing police lights. He said he saw two police officers struggling with Ellis and offered to help them.
But the police told him backup was on the way, so Hayes turned his attention to directing traffic.
Hayes said he did not see Ellis strike or kick officers nor did he see the officers use excessive force. He testified that he heard the officers say, “I can’t remember if it was ‘comply’ or ‘stop resisting.’”
Ashford-White, whose sister Aiyana Mallang has already testified that she heard a struggle outside the house they shared, affirmed Hayes’ testimony that Ellis was struggling as officers tried to gain control of him. Ashford-White had told detectives that Ellis was “manhandling” the officers, but he clarified on Tuesday that he meant Ellis was “bucking” while lying face down on the pavement, with an officer straddling his lower half.
“It looked like at some point the police officer had been pushed up by the person,” Ashford-White said. “They had been trying to get him under control to get the handcuffs on him.”
Ashford-White said he heard three Taser strikes, and then Ellis appeared to be under control. Those strikes, delivered by Burbank, were conducted before any other officers arrived.
Under cross-examination by special prosecutor Patty Eakes for the Attorney General’s Office, Ashford-White said he clearly heard Ellis say he couldn’t breathe as he stood “outside on the front porch” of his residence — just across the street from the struggle — around the same time that Rankine and his partner arrived.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court, when Rankine’s patrol partner, Masiyh Ford, who was a student of Ellis’ mother in high school, is expected to testify along with defense expert witnesses.
