WA AG Nick Brown describes Manny Ellis death as ‘murder’

(The Center Square) – Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown recently described the 2020 death of Manny Ellis during a confrontation with Tacoma police officers as a “murder,” although the officers involved were later acquitted and have since filed lawsuits against the state and the city of Tacoma.

The 33-year-old man died while being restrained by Tacoma police officers, prompting an investigation by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office and later the Washington State Patrol. The AGO filed charges against two Tacoma police officers, Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, for second-degree murder for the killing of Ellis. A third officer, Timothy Rankine, was charged with first-degree manslaughter.

However, all three were acquitted by a jury in December 2023, and were cleared of wrongdoing by the Tacoma Police Department in 2024. Rankine recently reached a $600,000 settlement agreement with the city of Tacoma regarding false criminal accusations, while Ellis' family also recently reached a $6 million settlement with the city of Tacoma.

During a May event hosted by Seattle University, Brown made the following statement: “It's interesting, because a lot of people think we are prosecutors and you know, and I don't know how often I hear from the public ... ’Why don't you prosecute this and that? And why don't you investigate this?’ And the reality is, I do not have any original jurisdiction over the vast majority of criminal activity. All of that is delegated to local county prosecutors.

There's a very small subset of cases where we do have original jurisdiction over a certain class of sexually violent predators. But for the most part, the Attorney General's Office can only bring cases at the request of the county prosecutor or the governor's request, which has happened from time to time, political particularly around uses of police misconduct, or where there's been a controversial or complicated police use of force, the governor has often requested the Attorney General's office to investigate that happened, for example, with the Manny Ellis murder in Tacoma, Pierce County.”

The Center Square reached out to the AGO for comment as to why Brown described it as a “murder" despite the jury verdict. In response, AGO Deputy Communications Director Mike Faulk wrote that Brown “wasn’t making any comment on his view of the officers’ conduct or the outcome of that trial. He, of course, respects the jury’s verdict. If you listen to the context, he was talking about the narrow role this office has in bringing criminal charges. As an example, he referenced a recent high-profile case, the Pierce County murder trial.”

However, police union Tacoma Local 6 Vice President Randy Frisbie wrote in an email to The Center Square that “words matter. A jury acquitted all three Tacoma officers in Manny Ellis’ death. It’s reckless and corrosive for the state’s top lawyer to keep calling it “murder.” It disregards the rule of law he’s sworn to uphold, slows community healing, and continues to demonize three innocent officers.”

The Center Square also reached out to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs for comment. Communications Consultant Barbara Smith wrote that “WASPC contacted the Attorney General’s office, and they assured us they would reach out to you to clarify his statement. We appreciate AG Brown’s response.”

The Center Square also reached out to the attorney representing Rankine in his lawsuit against the state, but did not receive a response.