A look at the death of Sandra Bland in jail
DALLAS — The release of information from the autopsy of a Chicago-area woman who died in a Texas jail has provided some answers in the case, with authorities saying she had no injuries that were consistent with a homicide.
Sandra Bland, who was from Naperville, Ill., was stopped July 10 after coming to Texas to interview for a job. Dashboard-camera video shows the traffic stop for failing to signal a lane change escalate into hostility. She was arrested on a charge of assault of a public servant, accused of kicking the officer and taken to the Waller County jail in Hempstead, about 60 miles northwest of Houston. She was found dead in her cell July 13.
Authorities have said the 28-year-old black woman hanged herself with a trash bag, a finding her family has disputed.
Here’s what is known so far:
[naviga:h3]What does the dashcam video of the arrest show?[/naviga:h3]
The video shows a routine traffic stop that became confrontational when the officer asks Bland to put out a cigarette. She asks why, and the trooper then orders her out of the car. She tells him she doesn’t have to step out, and he continues to yell at her.
At one point, he pulls a stun gun and says, “I will light you up.” After she steps out of the vehicle, the trooper orders her to the side of the road, where the confrontation continues off-camera but is still audible. The officer says in an arrest affidavit that she swung her elbows at him and kicked his shin after being handcuffed.
Why did bland spend three nights in jail?
Bland didn’t get before a judge until the day after her arrest, and her bond was set at $5,000. She needed to post about $500 of that to be released. In a phone call that afternoon, Bland’s sister Shante Needham said she would work on getting her out. Family attorney Cannon Lambert says they were still working on posting bail Monday when they learned of Bland’s death.
[naviga:h3]What happened the morning she was found dead?[/naviga:h3]
No cameras were in the jail cell where Bland was found, but a camera monitoring the hall outside her cell shows no one entering or leaving it between the last time she spoke with deputies — via an intercom system — and when her body was discovered about an hour later.
Following Bland’s death, the jail was cited by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for not observing inmates in person at least once every hour and not providing documents proving that jailers in the past year underwent training on interacting with potentially suicidal inmates.
[naviga:h3]What’s known about her health and mental state?[/naviga:h3]
A questionnaire filled out for Bland when she was booked into the jail states she told officials she had tried to kill herself by taking pills after losing a baby. She also told them she was epileptic and was on medication for that condition, though her signature appears on another document that indicates she was not taking any medication.
Authorities said any contradictions in the jail documents were the result of Bland’s inconsistent answers.
Her sister Sharon Cooper said that Bland had a miscarriage in May 2014 but she was not aware of any suicide attempt afterward. And Cooper doesn’t believe Bland could have attempted suicide without the family’s knowledge.
Cooper said her sister suffered from seizures about a decade ago but hadn’t had any in recent years and wasn’t on medication.
Bland posted a video to her Facebook page in March saying she was suffering from “a little bit of depression as well as PTSD,” or post-traumatic stress disorder. Cooper said she thinks the post just indicates her sister wasn’t having a “good day or a good couple of days.”
