Affidavit describes Texas traffic stop, arrest

There were no cameras inside Bland’s cell but cameras in the hallway showed no one entering or leaving before her body was discovered, Mathis has said. “I can not sense under the facts that I know now that a 28-year-old young woman, excited about a new job, posed a threat to anybody in Waller County, including any law enforcement officer”, she said.

Waller County Dist. Atty. This undated handout photo provided by the Waller County Sheriff’s Office shows Sandra Bland.

The death is already being investigated by the FBI but the local prosecutor said another investigation, by the Texas Rangers, would be very thorough. The jailer then noticed Bland hanging in her cell. The Harris County medical examiner later ruled her death a suicide. As more details become known and the independent autopsy report requested by the Bland family concludes her cause of death, more questions will certainly surface. But Bland’s family and friends have publicly questioned the official account that maintains Bland, from Naperville, Illinois, hanged herself with a plastic garbage bag.

KBTX has confirmed state leaders are meeting privately Tuesday with Sandra Bland’s relatives in Prairie View.

Bland’s death is the latest in a series of cases involving authorities and deadly confrontations with African Americans, including Eric Garner in New York City in July 2014, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August, and Walter Scott in North Carolina and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, both in April. “I want…DNA tests run on the trash bag”.

The bags, he said, had been approved by a jail inspector, but have since been removed from all cells. She graduated from the historically black school in 2009. Authorities say she hanged herself. Others have featured #SandySpeaks, referring to the hashtag Bland had used in monologues she posted on Facebook. Friend and mentor LaVaughn Mosley of Prairie View believes Bland was just venting after a bad day.

But her family expressed doubt that she would have killed herself – she had just moved to Texas for a promising new job – and Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said on Monday he would investigate the incident as a homicide.

On the morning of Monday, July 13, jailers checked on Bland and she said she was “fine”, according to Cantrell. Police station records show she attempted to make a phone call around an hour before her death but the call never went through.

Cantrell said the video was motion-sensitive, indicating if nothing is taking place after a certain amount of time, it turns off. He said the FBI has been given hard drives to determine if there’s been any manipulation. Mathis has also ordered forensic testing of the cell.

Trooper Brian Encinia, 30, started with the Texas Department of Public Safety in January 2014, according to department spokesman Tom Vinger.

On Tuesday, officials are set to release dashcam video of Bland’s July 10 arrest at 3pm ET. The incident allegedly escalated after she refused to put out her cigarette.

A department spokesman said last week that Bland was going to be issued a warning for a minor traffic violation, but was charged with assault on a public servant after she kicked the officer. The phone also has been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Texas authorities said last week that the trooper violated procedures and the department’s courtesy policy during the traffic stop and was placed on administrative leave.

Texas Rangers, monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are analyzing the video to make sure it has not been altered.