*Relatives of Black Lives Matter advocate Sandra Bland are not sitting quietly in acceptance of what the Harris County, Texas Medical Examiner determined as death by suicide-asphyxiation. They have instead ordered their own independent autopsy, according to NBC News.
On Sunday, Cannon Lambert, the family’s attorney, said that results from that investigation are pending and should be available within 48 to 72 hours.
Authorities claim Bland hung herself with a plastic trash bag in a Waller County prison cell following her arrest three days prior. She had been pulled over by a Texas State Trooper for what sounded like a routine traffic violation. But in what had to be an unexpected turn of events, a passerby took video of the officer slamming Bland’s head to the ground. The officer alleged that Bland became “argumentative and uncooperative,” and tried to kick him.
In the video Bland can be heard questioning the officer’s actions and thanking the witness for recording. She was taken to the county jail and charged with assaulting a public servant. And she was expected to post bail the following Monday.
Though Bland has spoken of bouts with depression in the past, relatives do not describe her as someone who would have taken her own life. She was in town interviewing for a job at her Alma mater, Prairie View A&M University.
A job she ended up getting.
The FBI has joined the investigation into Bland’s death, and Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis vowed that “the death of Sandra Bland will not be swept under the rug.”
Meanwhile, according to an article on MSN, new video has come forth to reveal what may be the real reasons behind the turn-of-events surrounding the arrest of Sandra Bland.
Previously, reports said Bland had attempted to kick the officer that arrested her, but now it has been reported that video shows officer Brian Encinia, 30, appeared agitated as he stood outside Sandra Bland’s car following the traffic stop, and she asked why he wanted her to put her cigarette out.
Monday, Jamal Bryant, a pastor from Baltimore who was flanked by other activists and protesters, said that dashcam images from a state trooper’s car showed the officer becoming agitated as Bland smoked in her car and started to film the encounter.
“He became outraged and unnerved because he’s handling a black woman who is not ignorant, who knows her rights,” he said. Bryant claimed that her death was not suicide but “murder, a homicide”.
The Bland family’s Chicago-based lawyer, Cannon Lambert, told NBC News that she asked the officer: “Why do I have to put out a cigarette when I’m in my own car? And that seemed to irritate him to the point where he said ‘Get out of the car.’” Lambert said that the trooper “looked to force her to get out of the car by way of opening the door and demanding” that she do so.
Texas police have also released a video from inside the Waller county jail that claims to show the last moments of Sandra Bland’s life. However, said video is also described as not capable of clearly showing the inside of cell 95, where Bland was being held, due to positioning of the camera or the cell itself.
The position of cell 95 is said to be at the end of a hallway and in the top right corner of the video, and is not visible.
Waller county sheriff’s office employee Brian Cantrell described Bland as being “in good health” at 7:05am and says she told the jailer “I’m fine”.
At 7:55am he said she contacted a controller via a phone in the cell to ask if she could make a phone call.
At 8:58am he said an officer went to the cell to ask if she wanted to go to the recreation hall. It was then that she was found partially hanging from the privacy partition, next to the toilet, “in a semi-standing position with the ligature around her neck” and her feet on the ground.
Officers then placed her on the floor, performed CPR, and sought emergency medical help, Cantrell described. Several officers are shown hurriedly walking to and from the cell.
FBI spokeswoman, Shauna Dunlap, said: “We are monitoring the ongoing local investigation. Once the local process takes its course the FBI will review all of the evidence to determine if any federal criminal laws may have been violated.”
Sources: Madam Noire and MSN
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