By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
New developments in the Manuel Ellis case based on an independent investigation by the State Attorneys General office and Washington State Patrol has exposed discrepancies in the case warranting further investigation. Ellis died after an altercation with Tacoma Police officers last March.
The incident took place on March 3, 2020, while Ellis on his way back home from a convenience store to get snacks and was stopped by Tacoma Police. What ensued is a tale African American’s have been reciting around dinner tables, coffee shops and classrooms for centuries. Another Black man was killed at the hands of Police officers.
According to James Bible, counsel for the Ellis family, Tacoma Police and the Pierce County Sherriff’s office had previously omitted detailed evidence in statements and press releases related to the incident that have now surfaced due to the State’s investigation and public disclosure requests.
“Evidence has surfaced providing us with inconsistencies and conflicts of interests in the accounts leading up to Manuel Ellis’s death. On the part of the Tacoma Police Department as well as the Pierce County Sherriff’s Office,” says Bible.
One thing that Bible claims was not previously disclosed by either the Tacoma Police Department (TPD) or the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) was that the PCSO officer in charge of the investigation was also allegedly present at the scene on the night in question.
Another point of contention is that a fifth officer, Armando Farinas, was allegedly at the scene during the incident, but previous reports named only four officers. The incident reports previously provided by TPD states that Ellis became hostile toward police officers forcing them to subdue him by way of chokehold, taser, hogtying and a spit mask. The result Ellis was pronounced dead on the scene.
However, according to a supplemental police report filed by Farinas, when he arrived at the scene “there was a black male subject lying face down in handcuffs which also had a hobble connected to them. The subject was alert and breathing and had blood on his face and coming from his mouth. Due to his assaultive behavior I placed a spit hood over the subjects head to protect everyone on scene from a possible exposure.”
While there are questions about how much of a threat Ellis, who was hogtied at the time, could have been to officers, and independent video accounts of the incident appear to contradict the officers accounts, Bible maintains that all of the officers involved need to be held accountable for their actions.
“The autopsy calls it “death by restraint or restraint asphyxia,” says Bible. “This means any of the means of restraint rather it was the chokehold, laying on his belly while hogtied and or even the spit mask could have caused Ellis’s death.”
According to TPD, as a result of the new findings, Farinas, a 26-year-old male who has been with the department three years, has been placed “on paid administrative leave pending the final investigative report and charging decision by the Attorney General’s Office.”
Ellis’ sister, Monae Mixon, is shocked about the recent developments in the case, acknowledging the conflicts of interests still leaves her rather skeptical with regards to the integrity of all those involved from the top down, and why it took so long for this information to be shared publicly.
“I’m a little confused,” says Mixon. “Last time I checked they’ve (the State) always had this information. The State Patrol took over the investigation under the Governor’s order. It was under my impression that they had this information the whole time.”
“Large media outlets were doing public disclosure requests,” says Mixon. “The Attorneys General office and the State Patrol informed us that they were following along with those requests. Prior to December 30, we never received any of this information from the authorities.”
Armed with this new information about the fifth officer on the scene and the omission of the officer’s involvement in the incident, Bible is optimistic about the strength of the case and the pursuit of justice in the death of Ellis.
“I think that the implications are dynamic, liability was always clear and ever apparent to us,” says Bible. “This [information] just adds to what we already knew and what we believed could be proven in relations to the city of Tacoma and adds to what will likely be a lawsuit against Pierce County as well.”
