Friend: Sandra Bland 'in good spirits' before death
HEMPSTEAD, Texas — Friends’ recollections and Sandra Bland’s own words present a picture of a young woman on the cusp of finding her niche in life. She seemed to have landed a perfect job. She had a voice and following on social media for speaking out about racial injustice and police brutality and was active in her community.
Even after one video surfaced showing the 28-year-old talking in March about depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, those who knew her said she would not have killed herself inside a Texas jail cell — not even over the confrontational traffic stop that led to her arrest, which mirrored the ones she railed against online.
“She was in good spirits. She was looking forward to what was next,” said friend and mentor LaVaughn Mosley, 57, adding that he was unaware of any struggles with depression. “She was making plans for the future, so there’s no way she was in a suicidal state.”
On Friday, about 100 protesters marched from the Waller County jail — where authorities say Bland hanged herself with a plastic bag on Monday — to the courthouse in Hempstead.
Bland’s death comes amid increased national scrutiny of police after a series of high-profile cases in which blacks have been killed by officers. Friends and family have questioned authorities’ account of how she died.
Bland, known in her family as Sandy B, grew up in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, the fourth of five sisters. She was active in her family’s church and was the only one of her sisters to go to college out of state. She studied at the College of Agriculture at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black school 40 miles northwest of Houston.
During her freshman year, she met Mosley, who recruited her for a job as a 4-H camp counselor. For three summers, Bland shepherded kids between horseback riding, fishing, campfires and other activities at the camp in Huntsville, Texas.
She was a member of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, played trombone in the marching band and volunteered with a senior citizens advocacy organization that Mosley runs, he said.
She also witnessed racial hostility and injustices against blacks in Waller County, Mosley said, describing the area as “very segregated.”
Sometime after graduating in 2009, Bland returned to Illinois to be closer to family, but bounced between temp jobs.
