Sanda Bland was found dead in her Texas jail cell Monday following her arrest July 10. Officials said she hanged herself, but her family doesn't believe she would do such a thing. Photo:
Sandra Bland/Facebook
HEMPSTEAD, Texas, July 16 (UPI) -- Three days after being arrested for assault on a public servant during a traffic stop, Sandra Bland was found dead in her Texas jail cell of what investigators are calling suicide by hanging. But friends and family of the Illinois native say that doesn't make sense.
Police in Waller County, Texas, arrested Bland, 28, on July 10 after pulling her over for failing to signal a lane change. Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith said Bland was combative, so she was arrested and charged with assault on a public servant.
Two days later, a couple of hours after she was given breakfast, Bland was found unresponsive in her cell at Waller County Jail.
A release from the sheriff's office said Bland was found "not breathing from what appears to be self-inflicted asphyxiation." Officials said she hanged herself using a trash bag in her cell.
"CPR was immediately started and Waller County EMS notified," the statement said. "She was pronounced deceased a short time later."
Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences spokeswoman Tricia Bentley told The Washington Post Bland's death was classified as suicide by hanging.
But Bland's family and friends don't believe she would have killed herself.
"The family of Sandra Bland is confident that she was killed and did not commit suicide," her family said in a statement sent to the Chicago Tribune. "The family has retained counsel to investigate Sandy's death."
Bland had just moved to Texas from Naperville, Ill., for a new job at Prairie View A&M, her alma mater. She had graduated from the school in 2009 with a bachelors degree in agriculture and was set to start a job as a summer programming associate in the school's cooperative extension program, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Sharon Cooper, one of Bland's sisters, told reporters Thursday it was "unfathomable" that her sister would kill herself.
Bland had posted a video to her Facebook page in March saying she was dealing with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She said she had been "real stressed out."
"I am suffering from something that some of you all may be dealing with right now," she said. "It's a little bit of depression, as well as PTSD."
She told her Facebook friends her faith in God has helped her cope.
Bland's Facebook page also had references to police violence against African-Americans, including a cover photo of a cartoon depicting a beaten and bloodied black man sitting handcuffed next to a white man with a Confederate flag patch on his shirt eating a hamburger.
A video of Bland's arrest surfaced on YouTube on Wednesday. The video begins after a police officer had restrained her on the ground. She can be heard yelling out, "You just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can't even hear."
The Texas Rangers, a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, is investigating Bland's death, Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said in a Facebook post. The sheriff's office has also asked the FBI to join the investigation.
"The Waller County District Attorney's Office is aware of the death of Ms. Sandra Bland and joins her family in grieving this tragic loss of life," Mathis said. "Once the investigation is complete the matter will be turned over to a Waller County grand jury for any further proceedings deemed appropriate by them."
Bland's death comes at a time when police officers are under scrutiny for accusations of excessive force, particularly against African-Americans. The incident has prompted an online petition calling for a Department of Justice investigation, as well as a number of trending hashtags on social media, including #WhatHappenedToSandraBland and #JusticeForSandy. The petition had more than 42,000 signatures as of Thursday evening.
