"Being the fact that they were veterans, highly decorated veterans, I wasn’t about to see them sit in jail over Memorial Day weekend . I know several people have offered to step up and reimburse me and if that happens great, but that’s not the intention."
In Our View: Case shows need, challenge of police reform The Columbian
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The quest for justice in the death of Manuel Ellis while in the custody of Tacoma police highlights the need for police reform throughout Washington. It also illuminates the difficulty in enacting such reform.
Criminal charges were filed last week against three officers 15 months after Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, was killed. During that time, multiple agencies bungled investigations into how Ellis died, with inquiries languishing even as protests sparked by video of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis took place in cities across the country.
Gov. Jay Inslee rightly ordered the Washington State Patrol to take over the Ellis case last year. Findings were delivered to the office of Attorney General Bob Ferguson in November, and Ferguson opted to expand the investigation.
Attorney General charges two officers with Second-Degree Murder and a third with First-Degree Manslaughter TACOMA Today the Washington Attorney General filed felony charges against three Tacoma Police Department officers involved in the homicide of Manuel Ellis. The Attorney General charged Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins with Second-Degree Murder and Timothy Rankine