Our office was relieved to hear that last week, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office decided to press charges against the three Tacoma Police Officers involved in the death of Manny Ellis. The brutal killing of Manny Ellis took an innocent and gentle soul away from his two young daughters, and has left our community traumatized and in shock. Based on witness statements, it is our belief that Manny Ellis was not treated with the dignity and fairness that the rule of law strives to uphold, and that his killing at the hands of these three officers was entirely unjust. Sadly these episodes have happened time and time again throughout our country’s troubled history of police violence, and we are devastated that an incident like this happened in our hometown. However, the Attorney General’s decision, as well as the recent conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd have given us a glimmer of hope for a future in which Police Officers are not above the law, and will be held accountable for violence against our communities.
We at Horwath Law are hopeful that, Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins and Timothy Rankine will enter and exit the justice system the same way that every other individual accused of a crime in the country does, entitled to the protections afforded by the Constitution, with no special privileges due to their line of work.