“He picked up the officer by his vest and slam-dunked him on the ground,” said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

There was a struggle before police got Ellis handcuffed on the ground and officers called for paramedics at 11:25 p.m.

Ellis stopped breathing and lost consciousness within a minute of firefighters‘ arriving, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. His cause of death was initially listed as pending while medical examiners ran toxicology tests.