Woman Found Dead In Waller County Jail Cell Suffered with Depression, PTSD

Waller County, Texas, where Sandra Bland was found dead in a jail cellthree days after she was arrested at a traffic stop, is known for its watermelon festival – and its long history of racial tension.

Bland had posted a video to her Facebook page on March 1 in which she said that she was suffering from “a little bit of depression as well as PTSD”, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Authorities said that Bland, 28, committed suicide, but her family isn’t buying it.

A prosecutor said Thursday that he will present findings of a Texas Rangers’ investigation to a grand jury. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also investigating the circumstances surrounding Bland’s death. She is outside of her vehicle, face down on the ground with an officer on top of her. Bland can be heard saying that her head had just been slammed into the ground and that she couldn’t feel her arm. The question of when police should be allowed to order drivers they’ve pulled over to exit their cars is an important one to consider in the efforts to limit police brutality.

That Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith was suspended from his previous job as police chief in Hempstead, Texas, after allegations of racism, and then fired, has raised further suspicion.

Her death comes amid increased national scrutiny of police after a series of high-profile cases in which blacks have been killed by officers or died while in custody.

About two hours later, a prison worker discovered she hung herself in an apparent suicide.

But her family has said it is “unfathomable” that she would have taken her own life.

According to The Huffington Post, Bland’s family wants to know how a routine traffic stop of failure to signal a lane change has ended with a 29-year-old woman’s death. Do you not even care about that? The county sheriff’s office says when Bland was found in her cell the morning she died she was unresponsive and that video showed no one else in her cell.

“She was very aggravated”, Needham said.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards cited the Waller County jail three years ago for improperly monitoring prisoners.

It doesn’t seem to make any sense that Bland would have killed herself on the day that she was planning to pay her bail and get out of jail – but if the evidence really shows that no one else went into her cell, that may be what happened. “I believe that we are all 100 percent in belief that she did not do harm to herself”. “To know Sandy was to love her, ” says Cooper. Local law enforcement claim she became combative and was arrested and charged with “assault on a public servant”.

A Prairie View spokeswoman said Friday that Bland was going to start a four-week assignment at Prairie View’s Cooperative Extension Program. Another inmate hanged himself with a bed sheet in 2012. But Bland’s family, friends and a host of other concerned parties on social media and elsewhere have expressed doubt that this is true.