Former Tacoma, Washington, officer Christopher Burbank, who was cleared of any wrongdoing in Manuel Ellis’ violent death, resigned from his new post as a sheriff’s deputy just a few days after he was hired.
Burbank was sworn in on April 1 as a lateral patrol deputy with the sheriff’s office in Thurston County, located about 40 miles outside of Tacoma where Ellis died. After posting about Burbank’s hiring on Facebook, several people blasted the office’s decision, which Sheriff Derek Sanders firmly defended online.
One Reddit user started a thread questioning the office’s hiring decision, which received more than 4,000 upvotes and 1,000 comments.
Sanders commented under that post that Burbank spent two months with investigators who combed through “every aspect of his personal and professional life.”
“Burbank has no other discipline outside of a few fender bender collisions. People feel very strongly on both sides of this issue, and it certainly isn’t hard to understand why. I suppose the larger scope of my concern is how many different layers have to weigh in that someone is innocent before they are deemed as such?” Sanders wrote.
“Burbank has been cleared at so many different levels, including the one that matters most: a trial before his peers. We can say definitively based on the local prosecutor review, the initial investigation, the evidence of the case, the follow up investigation, the jury decision, the polygraph examination, and background investigation that Burbank did not commit a crime.”
Despite his lengthy defense, it wasn’t enough to mitigate the overwhelming criticism.
“This isn’t a good look Sheriff. I understand that the department is understaffed, but it is much better to have understaffing then a rogue cop on the force,” wrote one Reddit user.
“It should be readily evident that this is an individual that is not trusted by a noteworthy portion of the population,” another commented. “(Burbank) is expected to be working with in a position of trust. This poses a direct conflict in the office with the public. How do you justify this decision in light of that fact?”
“This is completely disappointing but also not surprising. It’s sad what police can do and then just…go get another job elsewhere,” another user posted.
Three days after Burbank’s swearing-in, Sanders released a letter to the Thurston County community, writing that he “misjudged community perceptions” and that Burbank decided to step down due to community feedback and alleged death threats.
“When I made the decision to hire Deputy Burbank, I failed to consider the greater community impact and instead made the decision based on business needs to remedy [the sheriff’s office] staffing crisis,” Sanders wrote. “Furthermore, I entirely misjudged community perception on the investigation and jury process that Deputy Burbank completed. I recognize the harm this has caused to marginalized communities, and I was wrong.”
Burbank’s attorney stated that Burbank won’t be pursuing a career in law enforcement moving forward.
Burbank and two other officers — Timothy Rankine and Matthew Collins — were charged in the death of Manuel Ellis who was beaten, shocked, and hogtied face-down on a street on March 3, 2020.
Both Burbank and Collins were charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.
Prosecutors argued that the officers were the ones who started a confrontation with Ellis while defense attorneys claimed Ellis was the aggressor. Collins testified that during the encounter, Ellis lifted him from the ground with “superhuman strength” and threw him. Three witnesses stated they saw no such thing.
Home surveillance video showed officers punching Ellis while he held his hands up in the air. Burbank was also caught on video shooting a Taser at Ellis’ chest and Collins was seen wrapping an arm around his neck from behind. Ellis pleaded for breath as he was handcuffed and hogtied with Rankine sitting on top of him.
A medical examiner determined that Ellis died from heart failure after suffering a lack of oxygen. However, after a 10-week trial, a jury acquitted all three officers in December 2023, standing by defense arguments that drug use and a bad heart were the ultimate factors that led to Ellis’ death.
Washington state lawmakers passed legislation to ban hogtying altogether as a police restraint measure following the trial. While legislators in both the state Senate and House approved the measure in February, the bill is still circulating in the Senate chamber awaiting final verification before heading to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk.
Ellis died less than three months before the death of George Floyd, which incited international protests against police brutality.
