TACOMA, Wash. — The first day of the trial for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kicked off Monday with opening statements and witness testimony.
Chauvin has been charged with killing George Floyd, whose death sparked global protests last summer after video emerged showing Chauvin driving his knee into Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes.
Many were shocked and angered after seeing the video, but in Tacoma, the death of Floyd isn’t just shocking, but familiar. The circumstances surrounding Floyd’s death are eerily similar to the death of Manuel Ellis, who was killed while in Tacoma police custody in March 2020.
“Similar to George Floyd, we can hear Ellis saying ‘I can’t breathe,’” said James Bible, attorney for the Ellis family. “We can actually hear him saying, ‘I can’t breathe, sir.’ Similar to George Floyd, there are independent witnesses who actually witnessed the event, some of whom have filmed the event and have given consistent renditions of the event to the powers that be.”
However, there’s a key difference.
“What we’ve also seen, similar to George Floyd, in Minnesota there was a bit of a cover-up, though they eventually ended up charging. Here, there’s been a cover-up, but we have not yet had a charge,” said Bible.
Activists have since demanded an independent investigation into Ellis’ death after video emerged showing more officers being directly involved in the encounter than what was initially reported.
Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer stated that now that the case is under the purview of I-940, which calls for independent investigations in the state, they can’t disclose details of the investigation.
Community organizers are also calling for legislators in Washington to pass reforms they hope change the way policing is done in the state so that what happened to Ellis and Floyd won’t happen to anyone else.
“The actions of this police officer were cruel and indifferent. There was an excessive use of force,” said Leslie Cushman of the Washington Coalition of Police of Accountability. “We should all be worried about a culture that normalizes this, and I’m glad that legislators are paying attention to this, including the Washington State Legislature.”
Community organizers and city leaders in Tacoma are calling on state Attorney General Bob Ferguson to bring charges against the officers involved in Ellis' death, so that his family can receive justice.
Ferguson's office announced in February that the state investigation into Ellis' death is expected to conclude by early April.
Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. If convicted of the most serious charge, he could face up to fifteen years in prison.
KING 5 Law Enforcement Analyst and former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best shared her thoughts about police training, and specifically the way Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for an extended period of time.
"Certainly, in any training that I’ve seen while some of those tactics are used on a temporary basis, I have not seen a case that has been the case where people can, or should, or have been trained to keep their knee on someone’s neck for that length of time as part of training," said Best during an interview Monday. "And force is modulated, so as resistance is reduced, the level of force is reduced, so there were some valid arguments about why it continued for the length of time that it did."
Chauvin's trial continues on Tuesday.
