The City of Tacoma is giving $500,000 each to former Tacoma Police officers Matthew Collins, Christopher Burbank, and Timothy Rankine to leave the Tacoma Police Department, according to a “voluntary separation” agreement released Tuesday afternoon. This follows their acquittal in the killing of Manuel “Manny” Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, whom the three officers killed on March 3, 2020. Police Chief for the City of Tacoma, Avery Moore, announced that none of the officers violated the use-of-force policy in effect on March 3, 2020. Collins was reprimanded for violating policy concerning community courtesy when he told Ellis to “Shut the fuck up” in response to Ellis telling him that he could not breathe.
The three former officers were acquitted of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the killing of Ellis. Ellis was beaten, tased twice, hog-tied, and eventually died from oxygen deprivation by physical restraint. The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’s death as a homicide. The medical examiner also noted Ellis’s pre-existing heart condition and found large amounts of methamphetamine in his system.
City Manager Elizabeth Pauli released a statement on the voluntary resignation of the three former Tacoma officers, stating, “These agreements support a responsible, constructive path forward for our community and the Tacoma Police Department.”
ABC News reported that Matthew Ericksen, an attorney for Ellis’ family, called it “perverse” and said the officers were “effectively being rewarded” for his death. He noted that the officers had already been paid about $1.5 million total while on leave for nearly four years. “The worst TPD officers are also the highest-paid TPD officers!” Ericksen wrote. “Everyone in the community should be upset by this.”
This announcement comes days after the U.S. Justice Department opened a federal investigation into Burbank, Collins, and Rankine violating federal law during their interaction with Ellis.
The attorney for Rankine, Anne Bremner, stated on the mutually agreed resignation and large payout that, “this says to the public that these are excellent officers, and it’s a shame Tacoma is losing them.”
While Moore cleared the former Tacoma Police officers of wrongdoing, he stated, “The use-of-force policy in place in March of 2020 failed to serve the best interests of the police department or the community…That policy has since been superseded by a new policy.”
Moore went on to extend “both a personal and collective apology” to (BIPOC) people due to the detrimental impact policing has had on their respective communities, noting, “…I am committed to acknowledging and taking responsibility, adamantly refusing to condone or turn a blind eye to such heinous acts.”
“[T]ime and time again, these police departments have shown us that they’ll collude together, they’ll cover up evidence they won’t investigate. They will not do their jobs,” said Ellis’s sister Monet Carter-Mixon after the verdict was released on December 13th, 2023.
