A pulmonary expert was called by the state in the trial for the death of Manuel Ellis on Tuesday. Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, died in Tacoma police custody after a confrontation with officers on the night of March 3, 2020. Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank face second-degree murder charges and first-degree manslaughter charges. Officer Timothy Rankine faces a first-degree manslaughter charge. Dr. Curtis Veal specializes in pulmonary medicine, internal medicine and critical care. He is currently a doctor in the cardiovascular ICU at Swedish’s Cherry Hill campus. Whether Dr. Veal would actually get to appear in front of the jury was not immediately clear at the beginning of the morning court session. Defense attorney Mark Conrad, representing Officer Rankine, took issue with multiple parts of Veal’s report and complained about the length of time the state was taking to present its case, citing redundancies in expert witness testimonies. READ MORE: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/death-of-manuel-ellis/tacoma-officers-trial-manuel-ellis-death/281-0945132d-6fec-4bed-9706-b82b9f6b5b75