Tacoma community members call for accountability as trial of police officers charged with killing Manny Ellis begins

Opening statements began Tuesday morning in the trial of three Tacoma police officers charged with killing Manny Ellis.

According to the Associated Press, Washington state Assistant Attorney General Kent Liu re-enacted Ellis’ last words for the jury: “I can’t breathe, sir. I can’t breathe, sir. I can’t breathe.”

Ellis, a Black man, was apprehended by police in March of 2020 while he was walking home after a trip to a convenience store for donuts and water. Video and audio evidence from the prosecution show officers tackling, tasing, and restraining Ellis. Officers also placed a fabric “spit hood” over Ellis’s head.

Ellis was declared dead at the scene. Jerry Cornfield is a reporter with The Washington State Standard. He says initially, news coverage and the awareness of Ellis’s death was mostly contained to Tacoma, until a few months later when the murder of George Floyd brought new attention to the case.

Manny Ellis became a rallying cry for advocates of expanded police training and accountability laws in Washington state – and they got results.

"It became a very big case both in Tacoma and statewide and becomes really the first time the state's attorney general has ever prosecuted three police officers as a yearlong investigation and actual probable causes and charges were filed back in May of 2021," Cornfield told Soundside's Libby Denkmann.

For the next couple of months, jurors will hear from the state attorney general's office, attorneys representing the accused officers, and eyewitnesses about what happened in March 2020.

Cornfield says that community members and police officers are watching the trial to see how the justice system will handle the case, and whether a fair and impartial trial can be delivered.

"As the trial goes and gets near the end, there's gonna be a lot of eyes watching the streets of Tacoma and Seattle to see whether what the jury decides, is seen as just or if it's seen as not, and they want to respond," Cornfield said.

One set of eyes on the trial is Jamika Scott, a community advocate in Tacoma's historically Black Hilltop neighborhood, and candidate for Position 3 on Tacoma's City Council.

As she listened to Liu recount Manny's final words, Scott says she found herself flip flopping from wanting to cry and throw up.

"As he's fighting for his last breath, Manny is still trying to do what a lot of black people try to do when they're faced with officers or with law enforcement is be respectful and try their best to get out of that situation," Scott said.

Listen to the full interview with Jerry Cornfield and Jamika Scott by clicking the play button above.