TACOMA — Moments before she testified Monday in the trial of three Tacoma police officers charged in her son’s death, Marcia Carter-Patterson described her state of mind as “scared, very scared.”
Over the weekend, Carter-Patterson said she was targeted with a location tracking device and vandalism. The Washington Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, confirmed Monday that it is aware of the tracking device, but declined further comment without identifying suspects.
On Friday, Carter-Patterson was getting out of her car when she noticed something dropped from it. Closer inspection revealed a small, black “air tag,” a discreet tracking device that uses Wi-Fi technology. Alarmed by the discovery, Carter-Patterson has stayed with relatives beginning Friday night. An investigator from the attorney general’s office collected the air tag.
On Saturday morning, Carter-Patterson said her relatives found two tires on her car had been slashed while it was parked at her Tacoma home.
Lawyers for the three officers said they were unaware of the air tag and denied that anyone associated with them or their clients was involved.
Monèt Carter-Mixon, Manuel Ellis’ sister, who testified last week, said she regards the weekend’s events as “witness intimidation.”
“What has my mother done to deserve this, besides have a dead son?” Carter-Mixon said.
James Bible, an attorney for the Ellis family, said the family is weighing its options, including whether to report the incidents to the FBI. The family chose to not call Tacoma police to report the tracking device and vandalism because of the obvious conflict of interest — with officers from the Tacoma Police Department on trial for her son’s death.
Officers Matthew Collins, 40, and Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, are on trial for second-degree murder. Collins, Burbank, and Officer Timothy Rankine, 34, all are charged with first-degree manslaughter. The defendants have pleaded not guilty. They are free on bail and remain employed on paid leave.
On Monday, special prosecutor Patty Eakes asked Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff to admonish Rankine, who Ellis’ family members and their supporters reported was photographing them during court recess last week. Rankine’s lawyer, Mark Conrad, denied that Rankine had photographed anyone. Chushcoff declined to admonish Rankine but implored everyone to behave in ways that make the courtroom feel safe.
The historic trial is the largest prosecution of police since the 1930s and is expected to last for months. The prosecution is trying to prove the officers suffocated Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, by using unnecessary force, and are relying on eyewitness videos of his fatal encounter with Collins and Burbank, in particular.
The defense has focused on high levels of methamphetamine in Ellis’ bloodstream and his heart condition.
Carter-Patterson, in the moments before she entered the courtroom to testify on Monday, told The Seattle Times that while she was fearful after the weekend’s events, she wouldn’t let it deter her from testifying. “I’m not going to be intimidated,” she said.
On the witness stand, she recounted her final conversation with her son, who she described as “the glue” of her family, not knowing that within two hours after it ended, he would be dead.
Carter-Patterson described her son as jovial during that video call. “That was the night he said, ‘Mom, I really want to give my life to the lord. I’m tired of the lies. I want to be here for my family. I want my life to change and I want to give it to Jesus Christ.’”
The next morning, Carter-Patterson learned of her son’s death. “It was the worst day of my life,” she testified. “I lost it because I didn’t think that it was true.”
Bible said Ellis’ relatives have documented past instances of being followed, and have been the subject of outrage from the officers’ supporters online.
“The intimidation they’ve experienced is not new,” Bible told The Seattle Times. “From the minute they stood up for the memory of their deceased loved one, they have been the focus of the harshest criticism and intimidation you can imagine.”
He noted that while the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department was still conducting the preliminary investigation into Ellis’ death, personnel from the Tacoma Police Department and the sheriff’s department who staffed the federal fusion center in Tacoma, designed to root out terrorism, conducted secretive surveillance on the Ellis family and its supporters.
And Carter-Mixon and trial witness Sara McDowell, who recorded one of the videos of the fatal encounter, were targeted with a restraining order, which a judge dismissed, after an online exchange with one of the officers’ supporters.
The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday, when McDowell is expected to testify.
