SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington state attorney general charged two Tacoma police officers with murder and another with manslaughter in the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who died after telling them him he couldn’t breathe as he was being restrained.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed charges of second-degree murder Thursday against Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, and first-degree manslaughter against Timothy Rankine.
Witnesses reported seeing Burbank and Collins attack Ellis without provocation. The 33-year-old Ellis was killed March 3, 2020, just weeks before George Floyd’s death triggered a nationwide reckoning on race and policing.
Ellis’ final words — “I can’t breathe, sir!” — were captured by a home security camera.