SPOKANE, Wash. — A brutal attack in downtown Spokane that happened in broad daylight was captured on surveillance video, according to newly filed court records.
Martay Ellis, 24, was arrested on a first-degree assault charge, a class A felony, and is being held on $500,000 bond. Spokane police said he is a five-time convicted felon with prior convictions that include felony assault and robbery.
Ellis is accused of stomping on a woman’s head and kicking her while she was unconscious. The victim, later identified as Tiffany Turner, is now out of the hospital and recovering at home, according to her brother. Court documents say Turner has cuts and bruising to her face and head.
A detective with the Spokane Police Department wrote in a probable cause document that he reviewed surveillance video from multiple sources and angles that outline Ellis’ movements before, during and after the attack.
According to documents, Ellis was walking westbound on 2nd Avenue past Jefferson Street. Turner was stopped in her car headed northbound on Jefferson. Police believe Turner might have yelled something at Ellis because Ellis turned around and threw some sort of gesture toward her, documents say.
Documents say Turner got out of her car and Ellis started walking quickly toward her. Turner appears to be standing normal as Ellis makes angry gestures with his arms, the detective wrote. The detective also notes that Turner made no aggressive movement toward Ellis and said “there is no visible reason for any assault to occur toward her.”
Turner started to back up when Ellis threw a punch and tackled her to the ground, document say. The officer said while Turner was on the ground she was struggling to get away as Ellis is on top of her. The detective said it appeared that Ellis had his hands around her neck or head and he punched her several times in the head, according to documents. When Turner stopped moving, Ellis stood up then, kicked and stomped on Turner’s head.
“During all of his kicks to her head, she is motionless on the ground, clearly incapable and making no effort to defend herself,” the detective wrote. “At no time during the entire attack does Turner make any effort to attack or aggress toward Ellis.”
Documents say Ellis took off running westbound on 2nd Avenue as several people started running toward him.
After reviewing surveillance video, the detective showed pictures of Ellis to officers downtown who said he looked familiar but they didn’t know his name. A short time later, another officer contacted him saying he had located Ellis at Cinder downtown, according to documents.
Ellis matched the description of the man seen in the surveillance video, documents said. Ellis also had injuries consistent with having committed an assault, the detective said. He was then arrested for assault.
Tommie Peterson, Turner's brother, told KREM 2’s Amanda Roley that his sister does not know Ellis.
“She does not know this guy, the attacker, and the way she was attacked in such a brutal and violent way,” Peterson said. “It's just mind-blowing, like you would think attacks like that usually come from a personal vendetta or some kind of a personal issue that they have with them, but that night she was simply going to get through for the kids, and then go back to her home, and some word exchange apparently to this individual, and he literally attacked my sister.”
Peterson is confident his sister is going to recover from the attack because she’s a fighter and one of his strongest siblings.
“I'm the oldest of eight, she's third in line,” he explained. “She's the first girl. She's the oldest of the girls. She's always had this tomboyish quality because she gravitated more so to us guys than she did her sisters.”
Turner is a nurse’s aid at Sacred Heart Medical Center and does home health care. She’s a single mother to two boys.
“I've moved up here to be closer to her, and just to get our bond a little stronger,” Peterson said. “I moved up here a few months ago, and this whole situation is just really drawing me into a…it’s all a haze. It's all a haze really just trying to process this still.”
Now, the family wants justice for what was done and for the community to rally around her.
“We want justice in this matter, this person did this to her, she did not deserve that no woman deserves what do you do, and to have such a non-remorseful response, watching the news story of him in a courtroom was just infuriating,” Peterson said. “And it was really hard to hold it together just seeing how he was just so cold, considering what he did to someone.”