• The officers were accused of using excessive force during Ellis’s arrest in Washington State.
• Ellis was reportedly beaten and restrained face down on the pavement in Tacoma, Washington.
• Video footage captured Ellis pleading for help and expressing difficulty in breathing.

In a recent development, a US jury has cleared three police officers of all criminal charges related to the death of Manuel Ellis, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in 2020. The officers were accused of using excessive force during Ellis’s arrest in Washington State.

During the incident, 33-year-old Ellis was reportedly beaten and restrained face down on the pavement in Tacoma. Video footage captured him pleading for help, expressing difficulty in breathing. The prosecutors argued that the officers employed deadly force, while the defense contended that Ellis’s death resulted from drugs and an existing heart condition.

Ellis’s tragic death occurred just months before the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which ignited widespread protests and a renewed focus on racial injustice.

In the trial, two of the officers, Matthew Collins (40) and Christopher Burbank (38), were acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. The third officer, Timothy Rankine (34), was acquitted of manslaughter. All three officers had pleaded not guilty.

Manuel Ellis, a father of two, was simply walking home with doughnuts from a 7-Eleven late in the evening on March 3, 2020. The officers, who were in their patrol car, claimed to have observed him attempting to open the door of a passing car.

10 things that changed after George Floyd’s death:

During the encounter, the officers claimed Manuel Ellis became aggressive when questioned about his actions. However, three witnesses who testified during the trial contradicted this, stating that after a brief conversation, Officer Burbank forcefully opened the car’s passenger door, causing Mr. Ellis to fall to the ground.

A doorbell surveillance camera nearby captured part of the incident, revealing Mr. Ellis with his hands raised while Officer Burbank shot a Taser at his chest, and Officer Collins held his neck from behind.

In the video, Mr. Ellis can be heard addressing the officers respectfully as “sir” and informing them that he was having difficulty breathing. One officer responded by telling him to “shut up” using an expletive.

Prosecutors claimed that subsequently, an officer placed a spit hood—used to prevent detainees from spitting or biting—on Mr. Ellis’ head, while another officer restrained him on the pavement for six to nine minutes until the Fire Department arrived. Unfortunately, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The local medical examiner determined Mr. Ellis’ death as a homicide, attributing it to oxygen deprivation, with both a pre-existing heart condition and the presence of methamphetamine in his system as contributing factors.

In court, lawyers for the defense argued it was a lethal combination of drugs and a heart problem that had killed Mr Ellis. They said “they believed he was a good man when he was sober but the meth “caused him to be violent, unpredictable and paranoid”.

Wayne Fricke, representing Officer Burbank, told the court: “This is a situation where [Ellis] created his death. It was his behavior that forced the officers to use force against him.”

[embedpost slug=”joe-biden-calls-for-investigation-into-us-steel-sale-to-japans-nippon/”]