(Newswire.net — July 22, 2015) — After confronted the police officer who pulled her over, 28-year-old Sandra Bland was locked up over the weekend in the Waller County jail. On the morning of July 13, she was found hanging from the ceiling of her cell by a noose made from a trash bag. The “mystery suicide” debate was further heated after the Texas Department of Public Safety released footage showing the circumstances of Blands arrest.
Bland, was stopped by Texas state trooper Brian Encinia on July 10 after a traffic stop in Prairie View, Texas, about 60 miles northwest of Houston. The dashcam footage revealed Bland was angry for allegedly being stopped and ticketed for no real reason. The footage recorded officer Encina asking Bland if she was irritated.
“I am, I really am [irritated], because I feel like it’s crap what I’m getting a ticket for,” she said to Encinia. “I was getting out of your way, you were speeding up, tailing me so I moved over and you stopped me. So yeah, I am a little irritated but that doesn’t stop you from giving me a ticket…”
Than officer Encina asked Bland to put of her cigarette, which she refused saying she has right to smoke inside her car. So Endina commanded her to step out of the vehicle. Bland, however, refused which resulted in Endina tried to remove her from her car by force, calling for backup. But, Bland resisted even more.
“I’m going to drag you out of here,” Encinia yelled to Bland, before pulling out a Taser, pointing it at Bland and yelling, “Get out of the car. I will light you up.”
At this point, Bland leaves the car and the two leave the camera’s field of view. However, the car microphone recorded Bland continuing to argue about the reasons for her arrest. After Encina tried to handcuff her she resisted and Encina forced her to the ground stepping in front of the dashcam again.
Bland then complains that Encinia is about to “break her wrist” and that he “slammed” her down and “knocked her head into the ground.”
Blant was taken to the Waller County jail Friday, on charges she assaulted one of the officers. Monday morning, she was found dead in her cell.
Now the public demands to know what has happened during the weekend that drove the young woman to commit suicide, if that’s what it was.
Bland’s relatives are rejecting the official account that describes her death as suicide, AP reported. According to family attorney Cannon Lambert, she may have been killed.
“This family is really looking to understand what happened,” Lambert told reporters. “We don’t understand this. It doesn’t make sense.”
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said at a news conference on Monday evening that the case “raised many questions” and that “It needs a thorough and exhaustive review.”
Bland, who lived in Chicago, graduated from the Prairie View A&M School of Agriculture in 2009, and was returning to the university to take a job with the Cooperative Extension Services, a farm research project, AP reported.
District attorney Mathis agrees that it is unexpected for someone who was about to take a new job to commit suicide.
“I will admit it is strange someone who had everything going for her would have taken her own life,” Mathis told NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston last week. “If there is something nefarious, or if there was some foul play involved, we’ll get to the bottom of that.”