Tacoma agrees to $6M settlement in Manuel Ellis’ police custody death

SEATTLE – The city of Tacoma has agreed to pay the family of Manuel Ellis $6 million to settle a lawsuit over his death in police custody, according to the family’s attorney.

A spokesperson for the city of Tacoma declined to provide details but confirmed a settlement had been reached. Official settlement documents have not been filed with the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, where Ellis’ family filed the suit in 2021.

“This settlement in and of itself is recognition of wrongdoing and recognition that there needs to be improvement in the interactions between law enforcement and specifically communities of color and those that find themselves in poverty,” James Bible, the lawyer who represents Ellis’ family, said Tuesday. “There’s a question as to how much power minorities and people with little means have in our system, which makes lasting change difficult. But I think we are on our way.”

Pierce County in 2022 paid Ellis’ family $4 million to resolve a lawsuit over its personnel’s involvement in restraining Ellis and its flawed initial investigation that then-Gov. Jay Inslee ordered redone by the Washington State Patrol. Ellis, 33, died March 3, 2020, after repeatedly telling officers from the Tacoma Police Department that he couldn’t breathe as they pinned him to the ground, took turns kneeling on him as he lay prone, struck him in the head, hobbled his legs with a cord and placed a mesh spit hood over his face. Three officers who helped restrain Ellis faced trial for his death, including charges of manslaughter and murder. All three were acquitted in December 2023.

The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’ death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint. The autopsy report noted a potentially lethal dose of methamphetamine in Ellis’ system, which the officers’ defense lawyers argued was the true cause of Ellis’ death along with a pre-existing heart condition. Police contacted him at an intersection, where they said they observed him hassling a car as it passed.

Eyewitnesses’ recollections conflicted with the officers’ statements. The police said Ellis attacked them and resisted their attempts to arrest him, while witnesses who filmed parts of the fatal interaction characterized the officers’ aggression as one-sided.

Gov. Bob Ferguson, who was Washington attorney general at the time, criminally charged Officers Matthew Collins, Christopher “Shane” Burbank and Timothy Rankine in Ellis’ death, marking the first time in 85 years that three Washington law enforcement officers were prosecuted for an on-duty death.

Following their acquittals, Collins, Burbank and Rankine agreed to severance packages from the city of Tacoma that paid them $500,000 each to leave their jobs. Collins and Burbank were set to join the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office soon after being found not guilty, but public backlash over their hiring led the department to back away from its decision.

In the weeks after Ellis’ death, his sister, Monet Carter-Mixon, attended protests calling for police reform and honoring others who had died in police custody to seek answers about what happened to her brother. It was there that she connected with a key witness who’d filmed parts of the fatal encounter with police. The video was instrumental in Ferguson bringing charges against the officers.

“This is a culmination of so many moments. The family has fought so hard for so long to achieve something that somewhat resembles justice for their loved one,” Bible said. “Now it’s time to figure out how they’re going to move forward in the world. Some of the real challenges are just beginning, and we don’t want Manny or his experience to be forgotten just because there was a settlement. We need to remember this always so incidents like these aren’t repeated.”

Tacoma faces a separate lawsuit involving alleged excessive force by Rankine and his former partner, Masyih Ford. It stems from an incident less than three months before Ellis’ death, when Rankine knelt on a man’s back as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe. The man they arrested was not criminally charged with any offense. Ford was not charged in connection with Ellis’ death and remains employed by the Tacoma Police Department.