TACOMA, Wash. — The three officers who were acquitted of charges related to Manuel Ellis' death have opted to voluntarily resign from the Tacoma Police Department, according to a statement from Tacoma City Manager Elizabeth Pauli.
All three, Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy Rankine, entered into voluntary resignation agreements with the city, Pauli said. The city of Tacoma will pay each officer $500,000 and the agreements state that the each officer "separates in good standing."
Tacoma Police Chief Avery Moore said the officers were cleared based on 2020 policies, aside from officer Collins' violation for use of profanity. Moore released a statement saying an internal affairs investigation, which cleared all three officers of wrong-doing related to Ellis' death, guided his decision making.
"The Use of Force policy in place in March of 2020 failed to serve the best interests of the police department or the community. However, because it was policy at the time, it guided my decisions announced today," Moore said in a statement on Jan. 16, adding that the 2020 policy has since been replaced by a new use-of-force policy.
Moore said the department policy is undergoing a comprehensive overhaul, with 30 policies already revised and an additional 10 nearing completion with support from Lexipol and the Community's Police Advisory Committee (CPAC).
"I acknowledge the detrimental impact of policing on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, extending both a personal and collective apology," Moore's statement said in part. "My awareness of the historical context of policing includes acts of oppression, abuse, and dehumanization, all carried out under the color of law. Additionally, I recognize the atrocities spanning the last 30 years up to the present. I am committed to acknowledging and taking responsibility, adamantly refusing to condone or turn a blind eye to such heinous acts."
On Tuesday night at the Tacoma City Council meeting, Mayor Victoria Woodards spoke about the administrative decisions, saying it is the council's responsibility to ensure a death like Ellis' "never happens again."
“Regardless of what changes have or will be made, there is no doubt that the last four years have been long and weighty,” she said. “This weight has been made heavier by the anger, doubt, distrust, fear, hurt and exhaustion that we as Black people – including myself – carry as a result of the history of policing in this country.”
Woodards said she has full confidence in the Tacoma police chief and city manager, and highlighted the actions taken by the council to adapt the police department's policies.
This includes updating the department's use-of-force policy, implementing body-worn and in-car cameras, and creating a new unarmed community service officer position within the department "because not every call needs a sworn officer with a gun," she said.
Earlier in the night, the council also passed motions that allow officers to be interviewed for an internal investigation while a criminal investigation is ongoing and requires the police chief to place an officer on unpaid leave when an officer is charged with a felony.
“For those who have called for the firing of the officers, rest assured that the three former officers will not return to service on the streets of Tacoma,” Woodards said.
Tacoma City Council member Jamika Scott also spoke at the meeting, saying it is important to reflect on the fact that the department's previous policies lacked any accountability for officers and that it added to the systemic issues that failed Ellis prior to his interaction with the officers.
“What we haven’t actually heard is the full story of Manuel Ellis. We haven’t heard the story of the former officers. We don’t know all of the things that happened specifically that allowed for Manny and those officers to meet at that intersection that night,” she said. “There were a lot of other systemic failures that allowed for this to take place.”
Officers cleared in internal affairs investigation
The officers' attorneys confirmed to KING 5 on Monday that they had been cleared of wrongdoing in the internal affairs investigation.
Attorney Jared Ausserer, who represented Officer Collins, said Collins received a courtesy violation for using profanity. Collins received a written reprimand for telling Ellis to "shut the f--- up man," during their confrontation and was found in violation of the department's policy to be courteous to the public, documents show.
Burbank and Collins were both charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in Ellis' death by the Washington State Attorney General's Office. Rankine was charged with first-degree manslaughter.
The state alleged Burbank and Collins initiated a confrontation with Ellis on the night he died, assaulted and wrongfully imprisoned him, leading to his death. Eyewitness video shows the officers punching Ellis while he lay on the ground and putting his hands up in the air in a surrender position while an officer fired a Taser at him. Ellis was handcuffed and hogtied while Rankine applied pressure to his back, pressing him into the ground. The Pierce County medical examiner determined those restraint methods caused Ellis to suffer from a lack of oxygen, resulting in heart failure.
The defense countered that Ellis was the aggressor on the night he died, beat the window of Burbank and Collins' police cruiser and continuously fought back against the officers' attempts to restrain him. They denied the officers' actions were even responsible for Ellis' death in the first place, saying a toxic, potentially fatal level of methamphetamine in his system was the true cause.
The officers were found not guilty of all charges at the conclusion of the trial in December 2023.