Mentally ill woman dies after being slammed to the ground by police
From Black News, ybw 9
A 37-year-old African American woman recently died after being slammed to the ground by Cleveland Police.
Tanesha Anderson, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, passed away at the Cleveland Clinic after being physically assaulted by Ohio cops. Anderson died approximately two hours after police used a “takedown” move on her during a confrontation.
“They killed my sister,” her brother Joell Anderson said Thursday night, according to Cleveland.com. “I watched it.”
Police were responding to a call that Anderson was causing a disturbance.
Family members believed that police could help calm their sister and initially, all parties agreed that Anderson should be taken to the hospital for a mental evaluation. That’s where the stories of what happened begin to diverge.
“As the officers escorted Anderson to the police vehicle, she began actively resisting the officers,” police spokesman Sgt. Ali Pillow said in a press release.
“The woman began to kick at officers,” he said. “A short time later the woman stopped struggling and appeared to go limp. Officers found a faint pulse on the victim and immediately called EMS.”
According to Joell Anderson, his sister was fine until she was put inside the squad car, then she became agitated due to the confined space and tried to get out of the car.
“She was more of a danger to herself than others,” he said.
He says Tanesha Anderson was calling out for her family as police were pushing her head back inside the car. Mr. Anderson also says a taser was pulled on his sister and he begged officers not to use it on her because she wasn’t a threat, just scared.
After trying and failing to get her situated in the vehicle, an officer slammed Ms. Anderson to the ground, then forced his knee in the handcuffed woman’s back. She never spoke or opened her eyes after that. Joell says he pleaded with officers to administer medical care but they refused to help the woman, preferring to wait until a female officer arrived at the scene.
“She was outgoing, silly, al-ways joking,” Joell said of his sister. “She just wasn’t doing very well that day.”
Ms. Anderson lay dying on the ground for 20 minutes while waiting for EMS to arrive.
According to Al Jazeera, 50 percent of people killed by police are mentally ill.
