CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Mauvion Green hopes her mentally ill mother Tanisha Anderson didn't die in vain.
The 37-year-old schizophrenic Cleveland woman was pronounced dead early Thursday about two hours after she lost consciousness in the hands of police outside her family's home on the city's East Side.
Police said Tanisha Anderson went limp while struggling with officers escorting her to a police cruiser. The woman's family said they watched Tanisha Anderson die after a cop used a takedown move to slam her to the pavement.
Green, 16, watched the scene from a window inside her family's home. The Cleveland School of the Arts student wants no other family to endure the same.
"I am hoping for a change in the police system," Green said. "If they have a job to protect people, that's what they should be doing."
Police were called to Tanisha Anderson's family home on the 1300 block of Ansel Road about 10:50 p.m. Thursday. It was the second time family called police that day to report Tanisha Anderson was disturbing the peace, police said.
After long talks with Tanisha Anderson and her family, officers were given permission to take the East High School graduate to St. Vincent Charity Medical Center for an evaluation, police spokesman Sgt. Ali Pillow said in a news release.
On the way to the police cruiser, Tanesha Anderson began to struggle with officers who placed her in handcuffs, Pillow said.
"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."
Tanisha Anderson's family tells a different story. They contend Anderson sat herself in the back of the police cruiser, but quickly became nervous about the confined space and tried to get out. That's when officers began to use force, brother Joell Anderson said.
While struggling to get Tanisha Anderson back into the cruiser, an officer used a takedown move and brought her face down onto the pavement. He put his knee into her back and placed her in handcuffs, Joell Anderson said.
Tanisha Anderson's daughter said her mother didn't move or say a word in the 20 minutes it took for an ambulance to arrive.
"When they put her on the stretcher, her arms just fell over, lifeless," Green said.
An emergency medical crew drove Anderson to Cleveland Clinic, where she was pronounced dead about 12:30 a.m. The Cuyahoga County medical examiner is still working to determine what killed her.
Green reminisced Tuesday about her jovial mother, their spontaneous shopping trips to Tower City and the lessons she learned from a loving force in her life.
"She was real giving and she forgave a lot," Green said. "People would do so much wrong to her, but she still turned around and she forgave."
Still, Anderson believed in fighting for what's right, Green said, adding that she plans to continue her mother's legacy by working for the conscientious treatment of the mentally ill.
"I'm fighting for my mother, but I'm fighting for everyone else, too," Green said.
She navigated her family's grief-stricken home Tuesday with a sense of peace about her mother's passing.
"She's happy now," Green said. "That's all I ever wanted for her."