TACOMA, Wash. — Jurors saw videos on Wednesday of part of the altercation between Manuel Ellis and Tacoma police, taken by a pizza delivery driver who happened to be stopped at the intersection at the time and by a resident who lives at the corner of the intersection.
Witnesses Seth Cowden, the delivery driver, and Aiyana Mallang, a resident of South 96th Street and Ainsworth Avenue South where the confrontation occurred, were both cross-examined on Wednesday afternoon.
Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died after that confrontation with Tacoma police, on the night of March 3, 2020.
Three Tacoma police officers face charges in Ellis’ death: Officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins are charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Officer Timothy Rankine is charged with first-degree manslaughter.
Ellis asked officer to stop, witness testifies
The state called witness Aiyana Mallang to the stand on Wednesday afternoon. Mallang, now 28, was home at the time of the confrontation between Tacoma police and Ellis, and filmed two videos that were shown to the jury.
At the time, Mallang was home with her three kids, her then-fiancé, and her brother and sister-in-law. As she was going to bed on March 3, she said she heard a noise outside. While it is common to hear noises on the busy street, she said, the sound of two men yelling prompted her to look out of her bedroom window.
Her bedroom is located on the first floor corner, close to the street, and has two windows facing the street, she testified. When she looked outside, Mallang said she saw an officer in uniform and a man in civilian clothes, later to be identified as Ellis, in front of a police car.
“The man was twisting and pulling away from the police officer, asking the officer to stop,” Mallang said. She retraced what she saw, noting that she went between her side and front-facing bedroom windows several times to get a better view of the scene.
“When I went back to the side window, I could see the cop make a running kick toward the man who was still on the ground,” Mallang said. “… Then I saw the cop lunge down and punch, and both the kick and the punch made contact with the man’s body.”
Mallang testified that she only saw one officer with Ellis. She also testified that she heard the officer deploy a Taser on Ellis twice. In between the tases, Mallang said she heard Ellis plead with officers in a "panicked" tone.
“His pleading and just the tone itself sounded as though he was pleading urgently," she said. She added that she heard Ellis say “I can’t breathe” once before the Taser deployed, then a couple times back-to-back before the second Taser deployment.
During this time, the officer Tased Ellis then directed traffic to go around him. The second Taser buzz occurred when the police officer was on top of Ellis on the ground, she said.
Mallang said she heard Ellis grunting and that Ellis asked the officer to "stop" around five or six times over the span of about a minute and a half.
As the officer struggled with Ellis, Mallang said she saw about eight officers arrive on scene and create a "body wall" around the first officer and Ellis.
Her videos were taken about two minutes after the confrontation began and then another about 15 minutes after the confrontation began, she said. In the second video, first responders and law enforcement are circled around a first responder doing CPR on a person on the ground.
Mallang's testimony resumes on Thursday morning.
Witness says officer placed knee on Ellis' back, neck
The defense also got to cross-examine Seth Cowden about his recollection of that night and the actions he took afterward.
On Wednesday, prosecutors showed the video that Cowden took of the altercation between Ellis and police. The video shows one of the officers on top of Ellis on the ground, while the other officer stands, pointing a Taser at Ellis. Over the course of the video, Ellis is Tased multiple times. Ellis can be seen writhing on the ground when one of the officers activates the Taser. As Cowden drove away from the scene, both officers could be seen kneeling and pressing Ellis to the ground.
“I remember Manny being on the ground and one of the officers was behind Manny, was on his back, I believe, with his knee and the other officer was in front of him … trying to get his handcuffs, while assisting the other officer in keeping Manny down,” he said.
When asked where the officer’s knee was, Cowden testified that the officer knelt on the center of Ellis’ back and then moved to the back of Ellis’ neck when he attempted to raise his head.
There was no audio on Cowden’s video. He testified that he lost the original copy when he broke his phone and got a copy from a friend, who recorded the video without audio.
Texts from witness read in court
Wayne Fricke, defense attorney for Burbank, began cross-examination Wednesday by questioning Cowden about his interactions with the Ellis family's lawyer, James Bible – a line of questioning that was later expanded upon by Casey Arbenz, an attorney for Collins.
Both attorneys referenced text messages between Cowden and Bible, which began after Cowden reached out to Bible in June 2020 after Ellis died.
One text message from Cowden to Bible read, “Let me know the plan and how I should prepare,” in reference to an upcoming interview with an investigator. When Cowden was asked about what “the plan” was, he said he was simply referring to the date and time of the interview.
The defense then turned to a text message from Cowden to Bible after that interview took place, which read: “I apologize if I said anything disappointing. I tried my best.”
When Cowden was asked why he thought he may have disappointed Bible, Cowden said he was stuttering and nervous in the interview. Cowden denied that Bible or the prosecution coached him on what to say.
Both defense attorneys brought up that Bible gave Cowden free legal advice. Cowden had asked Bible if he had to participate in an interview for an Internal Affairs investigation for the Tacoma Police Department. Bible advised that he did not. The fact that the interview was for an Internal Affairs investigation was not shared with the jury.
Defense attorneys then questioned Cowden at length about discrepancies between what he said on the witness stand and in interviews with investigators, prosecutors and the defense over the last couple of years.
Cowden said on the stand that he could see the Burbank and Collins’ patrol car before he stopped at the intersection at South 96th Street and Ainsworth Avenue South, where the confrontation took place. After looking at pictures and video from the night Ellis died, Cowden conceded that the patrol car was farther back in the intersection than he originally testified but maintained that he could see the police car before he came to a stop – something defense attorneys tried to cast doubt on.
Cowden also said different things about who had the green light when he got to the intersection that night: either himself or the patrol car. In an interview with Bible, Cowden said he had the green light, but in a subsequent interview with an investigator, Cowden said he had the red light.
“What I am sure about is that I saw them when I was pulling up to the stop sign,” Cowden said.
The defense then noted that in a previous interview with them, Cowden couldn’t recall where he delivered a pizza just before the confrontation, however, he was able to give an approximate location on the witness stand Tuesday. Cowden said he recalled the delivery destination in a conversation with his former coworkers after his interview with the defense. He said that conversation was not related to the trial over Ellis’ death.
Background on the case
On March 3, 2020, Ellis was walking home when he stopped to speak with Tacoma Police Officers Burbank and Collins, who were in their patrol car, according to probable cause documents.
Witnesses said Ellis turned to walk away, but the officers got out of their car and knocked Ellis to his knees. All witnesses told investigators they did not see Ellis strike the officers.
Other responding officers told investigators that Burbank and Collins reported Ellis was “goin’ after a car” in the intersection and punched the patrol car's windows.
Witness video shows officers repeatedly hitting Ellis. Collins put Ellis into a neck restraint, and Burbank tasered Ellis’ chest, according to prosecutors.
Home security camera footage captured Ellis saying, “Can’t breathe, sir. Can’t breathe."
Rankine, who was the first backup officer to arrive, applied pressure to Ellis' back and held him in place while Ellis was "hogtied" with a hobble, according to documents.
When the fire department arrived, Ellis was “unconscious and unresponsive,” according to documents.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner ruled Ellis' death a homicide. According to the autopsy report, Ellis also had a fatal amount of methamphetamine in his system.
KING 5 will stream gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial from opening to closing statements. Follow live coverage and watch videos on demand on king5.com, KING 5+ and the KING 5 YouTube channel.