Family of Tacoma man heard saying, ‘I can’t breathe’ during arrest troubled by ‘ever-shifting’ narrative

Manuel Ellis’ family isn’t buying the story put forth by Tacoma, Washington, police that Ellis was “combative” and attacked an officer before he died in police custody.

“I knew that day they were lying and it was a coverup … because I know my brother,” sister Monet Mixon said. “He would not be combative to police. We were not disrespectful, especially when it comes to authoritative figures. We’ve always been taught that you have to respect, especially law enforcement because of what they could potentially do to you.”

Ellis, she said, would reiterate these lessons to her children, “so it’s just no way that that happened.”

Added mother Marcia Carter, “I knew from the beginning that my son did not hit a police officer. He would never do that. Like Monet said, they were taught to be respectful to authoritative figures.”

‘I can’t breathe’

Tacoma police tried to arrest Ellis on March 3, alleging the 33-year-old was “trying to open car doors of occupied vehicles.”

A physical altercation ensued, police said, and Ellis had to be restrained. A driver caught part of the arrest on video, and Ellis can be heard crying, “I can’t breathe,” on police dispatcher audio.

Officers called for medical assistance, but Ellis died at the scene.

Ellis’ cause of death was respiratory arrest due to hypoxia caused by physical restraint, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office determined. Hypoxia is a condition in which the body is deprived of oxygen.

His death has sparked protests in the city of 218,000 located about 30 miles south of Seattle.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, which is investigating Ellis’ death, did not return CNN’s calls seeking comment.

“There were no knees on heads, there was no cutting off of circulation, none of that,” department spokesman Ed Troyer told CNN affiliate KIRO. “He was handcuffed, he was talking, he was breathing and throughout the process when he had trouble breathing, officers set him on his side and got him help.”

Sister wants harsh punishment

Four police officers have been placed on administrative leave. None faces charges.

Mixon wants them not only charged, but she’d like to see the death penalty on the table.

“They need to be charged to the fullest extent of the law,” she said. “I would like them to receive the death penalty because they carelessly took my brother’s life. They took my brother from me, and so for that they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.”

Washington banned the death penalty in 2018.

Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodard has called for the four officers to be fired and prosecuted, spurring backlash from the local police union, which accuses her of a rush to judgment.

Carter has been crying a lot, she said, and her sadness is compounded by the unknowns in her son’s death. She spoke to Ellis the night he died, she said, and “his mind was on the Lord and making his life and his path in a straight-and-narrow way.”

The Tacoma Police Department’s narrative is “ever-shifting and ever-changing,” family attorney James Bible said.

“He, for whatever reason, got first smashed by a police officer door, thrown to the ground and beaten,” he said, explaining that the witness who shot the video and conversations captured on radio scanners tell a different story

“I think it’s critical to note that this independent witness actually was in a place where she saw the initial interaction and she says that Manuel Ellis wasn’t doing anything wrong. He hadn’t assaulted an officer,” the attorney said.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has too many ties to Tacoma police, he said, demanding a state investigation. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee promised an independent review last week.

“Washingtonians deserve every assurance that investigations and charging decisions related to police shootings and deaths of people in police custody are handled with urgency, independence and commitment to justice,” Inslee said.

‘Oh my God, stop hitting him’

On audio recording from the incident, which began shortly before midnight, officers are heard requesting a type of leg restraint about a minute before Ellis is heard saying, “I can’t breathe.” The family confirms it is Ellis on the tape, Bible said.

Two videos posted on social media appear to show Tacoma officers striking a man, pinning him down and telling him to put his hands behind his back. The man in the video is Ellis, Bible said.

Local resident Sara McDowell shot the videos — she can be heard telling officers, “Oh my God, stop hitting him. Just arrest him” — and Tacoma Action Collective, an activist group, has shared them.

Troyer, the Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman, would not comment on the videos after they were posted Friday, saying they didn’t have the videos at the time and they didn’t come from police.

“It’s not ours,” he said. “As much as I wish we could all see the totality of the picture and we could have the person come in and bring in a part of the case, that’d be great, but none of that’s happened.”

Mayor v. police union

Mayor Woodward has seen enough to call for the four officers’ termination and prosecution.

“I am asking — no, I am telling you that I am going to call for several things, and the officers who committed this crime should be fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” she said in a news conference last week.

The Tacoma Police Union accused Woodward of arriving at her decision “without an ounce of evidence to support her words beyond misplaced rage.”

The union drew contrasts between Ellis’s death and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which it called “repugnant to the badge.”

“Tacoma is not Minneapolis. The incident involving Mr. Ellis here in Tacoma was not the same as the incident involving Mr. Floyd,” the union said. “This is not the time to sacrifice dedicated public servants at the altar of public sentiment.”