By HALLIE GOLDEN
Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington state Senate unanimously approved legislation Tuesday that would ban police from hog-tying suspects , a restraint technique that has long drawn concern due to the risk of suffocation.
The legislation came nearly four years after Manuel Ellis , a 33-year-old Black man, died in Tacoma, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Seattle, facedown with his hands and feet cuffed together behind him. The case became a touchstone for racial justice demonstrators in the Pacific Northwest.
“He was loved and he was somebody’s family member,” Democratic state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, who sponsored the bill , said during the Senate vote. “And I think any of us on the floor would not want our family member to spend the final moments of their life in this inhumane way.”
Many cities and counties have banned the practice, but it remains in use in others. The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended against the practice since at least 1995 to avoid deaths in custody.