UPDATE, 7/29/15:
The Texas jail where Sandra Bland died has released new footage that shows her alive in jail before she was found dead in her cell on July 13. Authorities say they released the new footage in part to dispel rumors that she was already dead before even arriving at the prison.
According to the AP, the video “shows her arriving at the jail, being questioned by a jailer filling out forms, making phone calls, getting her mug shot taken, sleeping in her cell and being taken in and out.”
“She’s calm when she arrives at the jail, sometimes smiling and at one point putting her head in her hands. The jailer let her use the phone at the booking desk instead of the pay phone in her cell, and she was seen talking with animation during some of the calls. The video has no audio.”
Earlier in the week, a toxicology report was unveiled claiming that Bland may have used marijuana while in custody. This information was purportedly released to help shed light on her state of mind at the time.
The FBI and Texas Rangers are still investigating, the AP reports.
UPDATE, 7/21/15:
Police are releasing new details in the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old African-American woman who was found dead in her Texas jail cell last Monday after being arrested following a routine traffic stop.
The New York Times reports that she was arrested after refusing to put out a cigarette at an officer’s request. She was found hanging — allegedly using a plastic bag to kill herself — in her jail cell a few days later.
Per CNN, the case is now being investigated as a possible murder, and could go to a grand jury.“It is very much too early to make any kind of determination that this was a suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete,” Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis noted. “This is being treated like a murder investigation.”
In the meantime, a timeline was released. According to the Times:
“A Waller County sheriff’s official described a timeline for the jail cell of the woman, Sandra Bland, that started early in the morning of July 13, when she refused a breakfast tray around 6:30 a.m., until a jailer found her hanging shortly after 9 a.m. For about 90 minutes during that period, there was no movement by jail officials in the hallway leading to her cell, according to a video that the authorities released from a camera inside the jail.”
Also according to the Times, Capt. Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff’s Office said Ms. Bland answered that she was “fine” last Monday when a jail worker was making rounds shortly after 7 a.m.; she also reportedly asked about how to make a call.
According to the AP, Mathis has asked the Texas Rangers, who are investigating Bland’s death, to perform “extensive scientific testing for fingerprints, touch DNA and use any other valid investigative techniques.”
There were no cameras inside Bland’s cell, but hall cameras reportedly revealed no one entering or leaving her cell during the time leading up to the discovery of her body. FBI is looking into whether the video could have been manipulated, however.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Questions are swirling after the suspicious death of Sandra Bland, a young African-American woman who had recently moved to Texas from Chicago for a new job at her alma mater.
According to ABC Chicago, Sandra Bland, 28, was pulled over in what should have been a routine traffic stop — improper signaling of a lane change — on Friday in Waller County, Texas, where she’d recently moved to accept a job as a college outreach officer. During the traffic stop, cops arrested her for allegedly assaulting a police officer, though an assault cannot be seen taking place on a video shot by a bystander during the woman’s arrest.
On Monday morning around 9 am, Bland was still in jail — her family hadn’t had time to post bail yet — when her body was found in her cell in Waller County. Friends said her body was found hanging, but that is unconfirmed.
Bland’s horrified family and friends reportedly do not believe Bland committed suicide; she was apparently thrilled about her move and was due to start her new job on Wednesday. They think she died due to foul play.
In the bystander’s video of Bland’s arrest, cops can be seen on top of Bland, holding her down as she repeatedly asks them why they’re being so rough: “You just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can’t even hear!”
Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith claims Bland was arrested after being “combative on the side of the road.”
Jailers found her body in her cell three days later. Sheriff’s deputies claim she died by “self-inflicted asphyxiation.” A press release from the sheriff reportedly notes that officers tried to give her CPR, but she was already gone.
Bland was outspoken about social justice issues, and she expressed her thoughts about police brutality and racism on her Facebook page in videos she dubbed “Sandy Speaks.” In one recent post, she said, ”Being a black person in America is very, very hard. Show me in American history where all lives matter.”
“The Waller County Jail is trying to rule her death a suicide and Sandy would not have taken her own life,” her longtime friend told ABC Chicago. “Sandy was strong. Strong mentally and spiritually.”
A Twitter campaign has been launched at #JusticeForSandy and #WhatHappenedToSandyBland. An online petition has also been created to investigate her death.
Read more: ABC Chicago, NBC News
Photo: ABC Chicago