After a Black man’s death in 2020 drew analogies to George Floyd’s murder, three US police officers in the State of Washington were found not guilty of all charges.
Tim Rankine, 34, was cleared of manslaughter after a 10-week trial, while Christopher Burbank, 38, and Matthew Collins, 40, were found not guilty of both murder and manslaughter.
On March 3, 2020, Manuel Ellis, 33, passed away in Tacoma, Washington, while under the arrest of the police.
Footage shown at trial showed the police putting unarmed Ellis in a chokehold, blasting him with a stun gun, and forcing him to the ground with their bodies.
In the footage, Ellis can be heard imploring with the cops, saying, “Can’t breathe, sir, can’t breathe.”
Ellis died from a deadly amount of methamphetamine combined with an existing heart disease, according to the officers’ lawyers, and he kicked the door of their police cruiser.
Prosecution witnesses told the jury that the officers had been the aggressors, making an unprovoked effort to subdue Ellis that began while he was standing on the footpath.
Matthew Ericksen, a lawyer representing the Ellis family, said the defence had been allowed to essentially put Ellis on trial.
The Seattle Times quoted Collins’ lawyer, Casey Arbenz, as saying the verdict was “a huge sigh of relief” and reflected that the jurors were willing to look beyond the video.
The officers “should never have been charged,” Arbenz said.
City officials said the Tacoma Police Department was nearing the end of its internal investigation into the officers’ conduct, which could result in them being disciplined.
Ellis’s death came nearly three months before the murder of George Floyd, which set off protests calling for police accountability and racial justice across the United States and around the world.
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