OLYMPIA, Wash. — The death of Manuel Ellis could change state law.
The Tacoma man died while being arrested by police in March 2020. Officers said they had to repeatedly tase and hog-tie Ellis after he resisted arrest.
Though the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing, and three were acquitted in his death, the incident could eliminate hog-tying as a police tactic in the state.
The practice, known as a four-point hobble restraint fastens a person's restrained ankles with their restrained wrists behind their back. Law enforcement would not be able to use a tactic known as hog-tying under Senate Bill 6009.
”I have had to live with the shame of watching a person getting hog-tied,” said state Senator John Lovick, D-Snohomish County and former state trooper and Snohomish County sheriff.
Lovick voted for the bill when it passed unanimously in the Senate last week and Wednesday testified before a House committee in favor of the measure.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, said she was inspired to write the bill following Ellis’s death.
”I think it’s important that we all remember and understand what it would mean for us if a family member that committed no crime, that was found to have committed no wrongdoing, spent the final moments of their life hog-tied and pleading for breath,” Trudeau said.
James McMahan, with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, testified against the bill. McMahan said if the state removes the technique, it would need to be replaced with another tool, which could require additional funding or staffing.
"We ask the Legislature not to prohibit the use of this tactic, necessary to prevent a person from harming themselves or our officers, at least without providing us with a viable alternative,” McMahan said.
Trudeau said she was willing to work with law enforcement to find alternatives.
She said she was confident the bill will pass, despite those concerns from law enforcement.