Black man Death of Manuel Ellis, a Witness Told Tacoma Police dispatcher audio
The mayor of Tacoma, Wash., Was asked to shoot and prosecute the officers involved in Mr. Ellis' arrest after video clips of the encounter surfaced.
Tacoma, Wash. A woman who witnessed the arrest of Manuel Ellis, a black man killed during a police encounter in London, has come forward to dispute an account provided by the police that the officers themselves started a confrontation so violently that Used to shout Let them "stop killing him."
Sarah McDowell, who was in a car behind the officers, said in an interview on Friday that she saw Mr. Ellis go near the police car late on March 3 to find she had a friendly conversation. But that suddenly changed, he said, when an officer opened the car door and dropped Mr. Ellis to the ground.
The police have provided a separate account, stating that Mr Ellis initiated the confrontation when he picked up a police officer and threw him to the ground, causing the officers to stop him.
A black man killed in police custody in Tacoma, Washington, can be heard shouting on dispatcher audio that "I can't breathe," according to an attorney for the man's family.
According to a news release from the city's Police Department, Tacoma police tried to arrest Manuel Ellis on the night of March 3, after officers saw him "trying to open the car doors of occupied vehicles".
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.”
Manuel Ellis died March 3 while in police custody in Tacoma, Washington.Officials said there was a physical altercation and Ellis had to be physically restrained because he was "combative," the release said. Police said the officers called for medical aid when they saw he needed help, but Ellis died at the scene.
The audio recording, captured by the Broadcastify, provides additional details on the deadly incident. Officers can be heard asking for hobbies -- a kind of leg restraint -- at around 11:26 p.m. About 50 seconds later, as an officer relays a message to the dispatcher, a male voice can be heard in the background exclaiming, "I can't breathe."A few minutes later an officer can be heard requesting an ambulance.
"They're absolutely positive that that is their brother and their son," James Bible, the family's attorney, told report.
"This family has listened to it repeatedly over and over again in heartbreaking fashion," he added.
the agency investigating this matter, but did not immediately get a reply. Sheriff's investigators confirmed the recording to report affiliate KIRO and said there is also a video of the incident logged into evidence.
"When he said he couldn't breathe they rolled him on the side and he was breathing and he was talking," Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, told KIRO.The four police officers have not been charged but they have been placed on administrative leave.
J. of Washington Government Inslee said in a news release Friday night that the state would conduct an independent review of Ellis' death as the Pierce County Sheriff concluded its investigation. The review did not state the results of the investigation ahead of time, Insley said, but it aims to provide confidence in the results.
"We know that Manuel Ellis was one of far, far too many Black men who died while in police custody in America, including here in Washington state. 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."
The Tacoma Police Union wrote in a statement Thursday the mayor passed judgment on the four officers "without any facts, without an investigation, without due process, and with less than a minute of short, blurry, partial Twitter videos in hand."
"She called them criminals. She called for their prosecution. She called for their termination from employment. And she called for all of these things without an ounce of evidence to support her words beyond misplaced rage," the union's statement read.
The union also addressed the death of Floyd, saying it was wrong and "repugnant to the badge" and humanity.
"But understand; Tacoma is not Minneapolis. The incident involving Mr. Ellis here in Tacoma was not the same as the incident involving Mr. Floyd," the statement read. "This is not the time to sacrifice dedicated public servants at the altar of public sentiment."
