Before the Death of Manuel Ellis, a Witness Told the Police: ‘Stop Hitting Him’
TACOMA, Wash. — A woman who witnessed the arrest of Manuel Ellis, a black man who died during the police encounter in Tacoma, Wash., has come forward to dispute the account provided by the police, saying officers themselves had initiated a confrontation so violent that she yelled at them to “stop hitting him.
”Sara McDowell, who was in a car behind the officers, said Friday in an interview that she saw Mr. Ellis approach the police car late on the night of March 3 for what she initially thought was a friendly conversation. But that suddenly changed, she said, when an officer threw open the car door and knocked Mr. Ellis to the ground.
The police have provided a different account, saying that Mr. Ellis initiated the confrontation when he picked up a police officer and threw him to the ground, prompting officers to move in to restrain him.
Ms. McDowell, who recorded parts of the encounter on video, said that the violence of the police response had appeared to her to be unprovoked.
In brief video clips captured by Ms. McDowell, the officers can be seen punching Mr. Ellis, 33, while he was on the ground. On one of the video clips, her voice can be heard calling out to them: “Stop. Oh my God, stop hitting him. Just arrest him.”
“I was terrified for his life, honestly,” Ms. McDowell said. “The way that they attacked him didn’t make sense to me. I went home and was sick to my stomach.”
Mr. Ellis died in the minutes following his arrest after pleading, “I can’t breathe” — an eerie echo of some of the final words from other black men who have died in police custody, including Eric Garner and George Floyd.
Ms. McDowell said she did not realize until this week that Mr. Ellis had died in the aftermath of what she saw.
Detective Ed Troyer of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, which has been investigating the death, said authorities have not had a chance to speak with Ms. McDowell but had further evidence they have not yet disclosed and would not share it until the case had been brought to prosecutors next week.
The county medical examiner, Dr. Thomas Clark, listed the cause of death as “hypoxia due to physical restraint,” according to a copy of the report provided by the family’s lawyer on Friday night. It concluded that his death was a homicide but also said it was unlikely that his death would have occurred because of physicial restraint alone, saying methamphetamine intoxication and heart disease were factors.
Dr. Clark’s report said Mr. Ellis had enough methamphetamine in his system to be fatal, but he said paramedics initially found him to have a normal heartbeat. At the same time, he was close to respiratory arrest. Dr. Clark said it was possible that the most important factor in his death was oxygen deprivation “as a result of physical restraint, positioning, and the placement of a mask over the mouth.”
The report said officers had placed a “spit hood,” a device used to keep someone from spitting or biting, over Mr. Ellis’s mouth.
After Ms. McDowell’s videos were posted online on Thursday, Tacoma’s mayor, Victoria Woodards, released a video message late that night saying she was enraged by what she saw and was directing the city manager to fire all of the officers involved.
“The officers who committed this crime should be fired and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Ms. Woodards said.
While the videos show only two officers arresting Mr. Ellis, the Tacoma Police Department has identified four officers involved in the arrest: Christopher Burbank, 34; Matthew Collins, 37; Masyih Ford, 28; and Timothy Rankine, 31. Two of the officers are white, while one is black and one is Asian, according to the Police Department.
