Before George Floyd, there was Manuel Ellis. In March 2020, the 33-year-old African-American died of asphyxiation during his violent arrest by three police officers from Tacoma, a city located about fifty kilometers from Seattle. Like George Floyd two months later, he had been held up with one knee on his back and begged to be allowed to breathe. Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, the first two police officers present at the scene of the arrest, were charged with murder. Their colleague Timothy Rankine, who arrived later, is prosecuted for manslaughter. Arrest warrants have been issued for the three men, who face life imprisonment.
On March 3, 2020, Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins wanted to challenge Manuel Ellis, who was walking home after buying donuts in a grocery store. They had assured that the thirty-something had attacked them, but videos and witnesses have undermined their version of the facts, according to the prosecutor’s office. These stout-sized ex-servicemen “pinned Ellis to the ground, hit him several times, strangled and shot him three times with their electric pistol, without justification,” they write in one. statement of their grievances. Officer Rankine, who arrived shortly after with other reinforcements, “kept Ellis prone and continued to put pressure on his back although he said he couldn’t breathe,” they add.
The death of Manuel Ellis filmed
The scene was recorded by a surveillance camera and passers-by. On one of the films, we can hear Manuel Ellis, handcuffed, begging: “I can’t breathe, sir.” At no point did he seem to be resisting. The death of African-American George Floyd on May 25 below the knee of a white Minneapolis policeman had drawn attention to the case and Manuel Ellis’s name had become customary in major protests against the violence. summer police officers.
Traditionally, prosecutions of American police officers have been very rare, not least because of their links to local prosecutors, and convictions even more. In April, however, a jury found police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder, who knelt on top of George Floyd for nearly ten minutes. Since that verdict, two other police officers have been charged with murder and a final one convicted by an Alabama jury for shooting a suicidal man.
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