[2] The Pierce County Sheriff's Department initially claimed that Ellis had attacked a police car and officers, leading to the arrest.

[10] Ellis was hogtied, face-down, with an officer on him, for at least six minutes, and a spit hood was placed on his head in this position, stated prosecutors.

[17] In January 2024, Burbank, Rankine, and Collins each received $500,000 from the Tacoma Police Department plus standard benefits and payouts in exchange for their resignations.

[21][22] On the night of Ellis's death, he had played drums at his church, Last Day Ministries, then called his mother, brother and sister.

[20] After church, Ellis spent time with his landlord and her husband, then walked to a convenience store to buy food.

"[6] Then, according to prosecutors, officer Collins applied a "lateral vascular neck restraint" to Ellis,[10] which is a type of chokehold.

[10] Next, video footage from the male witness showed that the officer applying the choke then switches to placing a knee on Ellis's back or neck.

[9] According to prosecutors, a Vivint doorbell camera across the street recorded Ellis clearly saying: "Can't breathe, sir.

[31] Burbank and Collins told county sheriff's investigators that during the incident, Ellis did not speak, only grunting or growling.

[32] According to investigation documents, Burbank retrieved a hobble to use on Ellis, while Tacoma Police Sergeant Michael Lim, Pierce County Sheriff's Lieutenant Anthony Messineo, and Pierce County Sheriff's Sergeant Gary Sanders arrived on the scene.

[31] Rankine told county sheriff's investigators that he did not want to remove Ellis's "cuffs in case as he starts fighting again".

[3] Paramedics unsuccessfully attempted resuscitation for almost 40 minutes, including CPR and inserting a tube down his throat; Ellis was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:12 a.m.[3][9] Later that night, the officers involved had their injuries photographed.

[14] By March 5, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department claimed that the arrest was caused by Ellis running up to a police patrol car and hitting it, then "as the officers exited their vehicle, they were immediately attacked by" Ellis, described Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer.

[27] The Pierce County Sheriff's Department privately identified four Tacoma police officers as being involved in Ellis's death: Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins, Timothy Rankine and Masyih Ford.

[14] The four were initially placed on paid administrative leave, but returned to work after two weeks as "there were no known departmental violations", stated the Tacoma police department.

[7] Also on June 4, Troyer also said that officers "didn't use a Taser" on Ellis, but video footage that emerged later showed they did.

[46] The death was certified as being caused by "hypoxia due to physical restraint", and with "contributing conditions of methamphetamine intoxication and a dilated heart".

[2][11] Some of Ellis's chest injuries were "consistent with Taser probes", quoted KING 5 from the medical examiner's report.

[16][50] Officers Christopher Burbank, Matthew Collins, Timothy Rankine and Masyih Ford all refused to be interviewed or questioned by State Patrol investigators.

[14] In June 2020, Inslee's office acknowledged that a Washington State Patrol trooper arrived on the scene after Ellis was handcuffed, and stayed there briefly.

[14] The State Patrol findings also named the Pierce County Sheriff's Department deputy who helped to restrain Ellis as Sergeant Gary Sanders, who was off-duty when he responded to the arrest.

[53] After the Washington State Patrol's investigation findings were released in December 2020, The News Tribune reported that an investigator's notes quoting Dr. Thomas Clark, the Pierce County medical examiner at the time of Ellis's death, as saying: “the details of restraint weren't clear at time of autopsy and keep changing"; "this is problematic.

[13] The documents stated that Clark received more evidence only after the autopsy concluded, such as heart monitor readings and learning about an officer putting their weight on Ellis's back.

[65] In the wake of the acquittal, all three of the officers agreed to resign "in good standing" from the Tacoma Police Department in exchange for a payment of $500,000 each.

[67] After learning that Ellis had died due to police restraint, Governor Inslee on June 3 called for an investigation that was "complete" and "not tainted", while also advocating for a continued "push for de-escalation interactions between law enforcement and our community members.

"[68] On June 4, after the release of the first witness videos, Tacoma mayor Victoria Woodards said that "the officers who committed this crime should be fired and prosecuted".

[6] The Tacoma Police Union on June 4 objected to the mayor's call to fire and prosecute the officers, stating that she had done so "with less than a minute of short, blurry, partial Twitter videos in hand", "without an ounce of evidence to support her words".

[7] In mid-June 2020, KIRO 7 reported that Michael Staropoli, a lawyer for Tacoma police officers Matthew Collins and Masyih Ford, said that a state-run investigation into the incident would be "fantastic": "We not only welcome that, we embrace it.

[11] Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said that it was "disturbing that the Pierce County sheriff's office" only revealed its involvement in Ellis's arrest "after more than three months".

Ferguson called for the sheriff's office to "answer for its failure to comply with" Initiative 940,[43] which was a state law that went into effect in January 2020, approved by voters in Washington, that required for independent investigations into police killings to avoid conflicts of interest.