AG's Office To Announce Decision In Manuel Ellis' Case Soon

TACOMA, WA - The investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man killed by Tacoma police last year, appears to be drawing to a close, according to a new update from the Washington State Attorney General's Office.

It has been almost a full year since March 3, 2020, the night 33-year-old Ellis was killed while being restrained by several police officers. One of the enduring criticisms levied against the state is that the investigation into Ellis' death has taken too long and produced too little — a concern that the attorney general's office is now addressing head on.

"We appreciate and understand the desire for a conclusion to this review. Our work, however, must be thorough. A premature decision would be a disservice to the interests of justice," the office wrote.

While the office is not offering a hard deadline for when the case will be resolved, they say they expect to finish reviewing their compiled information and consulting with experts sometime in the next six weeks. Once that's done, officials say they will announce a decision shortly after and release their findings to the public.

Ellis' death drew widespread public outcry at the time, and he has remained a significant figure in protests against police brutality in Washington state. Many have also noted the substantial parallels between his death and that of George Floyd, whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked a wave of protests nationwide last summer: in both cases the men were recorded on video repeatedly telling officers they couldn't breathe before dying.

The AG's update says their investigation remains a "top priority" for the office and lists some actions they have taken during the investigation, including:

• Creating a review team including Attorney General Bob Ferguson, several of his staff members, and two retired state court judges. The office notes that the majority of review team members are persons of color.
• Interviewing civilian witnesses who saw Ellis at or around the time of his death.
• This included efforts to re-canvass the neighborhood in search of undiscovered witnesses.
• Reviewing "thousands of pages" of documents.
• Retaining experts for their case.
• Interviewing Tacoma Police Chief David Brame.

The attorney general's office also takes special care to note that they have been in frequent contact with representatives for Ellis' family.

That's important because one reason this case has taken so long to resolve has been a lack of communication. Initially, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department had been tasked with investigating Ellis' death, but was removed from the case after it was discovered that they had failed to provide a liaison for Ellis' family as required by law, and had not disclosed that they had had a deputy on scene when Ellis died.

After the discovery, the case was passed to the Washington State Patrol in June, essentially forcing them to restart the investigation from scratch. WSP then referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office in November.

The Washington State Patrol's latest update on their investigation, released earlier this month, cast significant doubt on the stories of the involved officers, as the Seattle Times reports. Four Tacoma Police officers who were on scene at the time of Ellis' death remain on leave.