Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday in the trial of three police officers in Tacoma, Washington, accused in the death of Manny Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man who was punched, shocked with a Taser, put in a chokehold and held face down on the sidewalk as he pleaded, “can’t breathe, sir.”
Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, both white, are charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. Officer Timothy Rankine, who is Asian American, is charged with manslaughter for kneeling on Ellis' back as the man struggled to breathe with his face on the ground.
