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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Family seeks answers in woman’s Texas jail death

Bland
Associated Press

DALLAS – Family and friends sought more details Thursday about the death of a black woman who authorities say hanged herself in a Texas jail after her arrest for allegedly kicking an officer following a traffic stop, saying the 28-year-old gave no indication she was in such an emotional state that she would kill herself.

However, Sandra Bland had posted a video to her Facebook page in March acknowledging she was suffering from “a little bit of depression,” as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Texas Rangers and the FBI are investigating Bland’s death, and a prosecutor said he planned to present the state findings to a grand jury. Bland was found dead Monday morning in a Waller County Jail cell in Hempstead, Texas, about 60 miles northwest of Houston.

“Based on the Sandy that I knew, that’s unfathomable to me,” Bland’s sister Sharon Cooper said at a news conference in Chicago.

Bland, who was from the Chicago suburb of Naperville, was moving to Texas to work at Prairie View A&M University, the historically black college from which she graduated in 2009. She was arrested July 10 in Prairie View.

Many online posts have featured #SandySpeaks, which refers to the hashtag Bland had used in monologues she posted on Facebook. Among other things, she talked about police brutality and what she said was a calling from God to speak out against racism and injustice.

“I’m here to change history,” she said in one video.

In one of the videos, she addresses her depression. She doesn’t explain the cause of the PTSD.

At a news conference Thursday, Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said it would be up to a grand jury to decide the importance of that video.

An attorney hired by Bland’s family, Cannon Lambert, said some relatives believe Bland was killed and the family wants more information from investigators.

Mathis said an autopsy found Bland died by asphyxiation and that she used a plastic bag to hang herself from a partition in her cell. He also said that although jail video didn’t show what went on in Bland’s cell, it showed no one went in or out of it from the time she was placed there until a jailer found her unconscious.

Bland’s sister Shante Needham said Bland had called her from jail Saturday, telling her that she’d been arrested, but didn’t know why. She also said an officer had placed his knee in her back and she thought her arm had been broken.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said Bland “became argumentative and uncooperative” after a trooper stopped her for failure to signal a lane change. She was then arrested for assault on a public servant. The department said paramedics were called to the scene, but Bland refused a medical evaluation.

Department spokesman Erik Burse told the Chicago Tribune that Bland was outside the car and about to be issued a written warning when she kicked the officer.