Texas jail releases more footage of Sandra Bland before her death

New video showing Sandra Bland being booked into the Waller County Jail has been released by authorities who say they want to clear up rumors being spread on social media.

Waller County is still one of 28 counties in the country monitored by the Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act, and Hempstead still has separate cemeteries for white and black residents.

This theory originated on Twitter, but thanks to Buzzfeed, it was given a much bigger platform with Ryan Broderick’s post, “People Are Speculating That Sandra Bland Was Already Dead When Authorities Took Her Mugshot”.

District Attorney Elton Mathis declined to comment Monday on the toxicology report.

Texas authorities are releasing more video of Sandra Bland during her three days in jail.

A preliminary autopsy report showed that Bland did not have injuries on her hands that would typically indicate a struggle, but said lacerations and abrasions were found on her wrist, which would be consistent with a struggle while being handcuffed.

He also noted, in response to a question about Bland’s family, that they hadn’t seen the footage and, “They are no longer communicating with us”. During this time a jailer interrogates her. In another clip, she is escorted to a bathroom and disappears from the camera’s sight. Michael Baden, former medical examiner for the City of New York, evaluated the photo for USA TODAY and said Bland did not appear dead to him, partly because her eyes appeared “purposefully” open.

But the Waller County jail, near Houston, has repeatedly been found non-compliant with state regulations in recent years, including after the 2012 suicide of a 29-year-old man.

His office has admitted violating state rules on jail training and monitoring inmates.

Other video showed Bland waiting around for hours in a holding cell before she was booked and had her mug shot taken.

“And again on social media there was speculation that these photos were taken intentionally dark to hide the fact that she was deceased”, DuHon said.

“We have two separate incidents”, he said describing the arrest and how Bland was held in jail.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get an answer to all the questions”, attorney Lewis White of Sugar Land, one of the committee members, told the Associated Press. “But our job is to get answers”.

The Texas Rangers and the FBI are investigating the case.

Mathis said he could understand how some people “looking at some of the bad things in our past would jump to the conclusion that this was a murder and not a suicide”.