Full investigation of Manuel Ellis’ death casts new doubts on Tacoma officers’ stories By Patrick Malone, The Seattle Times
Published: February 3, 2021, 11:30am
Share: Jeremy Dashiell visits a mural honoring Manuel Ellis in Tacoma. (Erika Schultz/The Seattle Times/TNS)
TACOMA Three days after Manuel Ellis died of oxygen deprivation after a chance meeting in a dark intersection with Tacoma police, an officer involved in the minutes-long chaotic scrum said he never noticed Ellis struggling to breathe.
“Not that I recall,” Tacoma police Officer Christopher Burbank told a detective investigating Ellis’ death. “No.”
But eyewitness statements and video recordings of the March 3 incident later surfaced, showing that Ellis said he couldn’t breathe at least four times three of them in Burbank’s presence.
The single-vehicle crash occurred the evening of Saturday, Jan. 23, off U.S. Highway 63. Written By: Anne Jacobson | ×
TRENTON TOWNSHIP A Hager City man died Saturday, Jan. 23, after his vehicle entered a wooded ravine, according to the Pierce County Sheriff s Office.
Anthony Wadsworth, 32, was northbound on Highway 63 near 210th Avenue around 7:50 p.m. when his 2007 Dodge pickup left the roadway and down into the ravine. He died of his injuries at the scene, the news release Monday said.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office was assisted on scene by the Wisconsin State Patrol, Ellsworth Fire Department and the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Here’s a video from my personal snapchat. pic.twitter.com/jle0fkzrJM
It’s been nearly a year since Tacoma police were implicated in the death of Manuel Ellis. Video shot in March of 2020 shows Tacoma cops beating Ellis and aggressively restraining him; Ellis died at the scene of what the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office found was “hypoxia due to physical restraint.”
A new variant of COVID has been found in Snohomish County. It’s the same highly contagious variant that was recently identified in the UK, and it’s shown up in nearly two dozen other states. Wash your hands, wear your masks, stay home you know what you need to do. I know it’s tempting to go out to bars and to shop and to visit friends and to take off those INFURIATING straps around your ears, but just don’t, just don’t, just don’t.
Stacia Glenn: Man stabbed to death outside Tacoma store identified as off-duty security guard
News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. 1/15/2021 Stacia Glenn, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
Jan. 15 A man fatally stabbed outside a Tacoma store has been identified as an off-duty security guard who made headlines earlier this year when he stopped a sexual assault in Seattle.
Tracy Baker, 36, of Fircrest, died Monday of multiple stab wounds, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner s Office.
Police say Baker tried to ignore his attacker, who witnesses say was the aggressor and taunted Baker until Baker briefly put him in a bear hug and told the other man to leave him alone.
2 new officers identified in death of Black man Follow Us
Question of the Day By - Associated Press - Thursday, December 31, 2020
SEATTLE (AP) - At least two new law enforcement officers have been identified as having participated in restraining Manuel Ellis, a Black man who died after his airways were restricted in March.
The new records were released by the Washington State Patrol on Wednesday. They identified an off-duty sheriff’s sergeant who helped shove Ellis’ leg to hogtie him while he was handcuffed and prone on the ground and a fifth Tacoma police officer who placed a spit guard over Ellis’ head after he had complained that he could not breathe, the Seattle Times reported.