By Nick Castele
It’s the second high-profile death involving law enforcement the sheriff’s office has been asked to investigate this year.
At the request of the county prosecutor, the Cuyahoga County sheriff is taking over an investigation into the death of a mentally-ill African-American woman as Cleveland police brought her into custody last year.
On Nov. 12 last year, Cleveland police responded to a 9-1-1 call about a family member in distress on the city’s east side. There they found Tanisha Anderson, a 37-year-old with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, according to her family. Officers tried to take her into custody—and this is where the accounts given by police and by her family diverge.
Police say Anderson struggled with the officers, and then went limp, with a faint pulse.
But a lawsuit filed by her family alleges that after Anderson tried to get out of a police car, an officer threw her to the ground and knelt on her back while handcuffing her. The city has denied these claims.
She was pronounced dead just after midnight.
The Cuyahoga County medical examiner found her death was associated with heart disease, mental illness and with being physically restrained while in the prone position. The death was ruled a homicide.
Although Anderson died more than a week before the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by Cleveland police, the county sheriff began looging into the Rice shooting in January at the city's request. That investigation was completed earlier this month.
In a statement, Sheriff Clifford Pinkney promised an impartial and thorough investigation.
"While I will not impose an artificial deadline," Pinkney's statement read, "I can assure everyone that our detectives will diligently pursue the facts of this incident in a reasonable, responsible and timely manner."
The county prosecutor’s office says when this probe is finished, the case will go to a grand jury.
