Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Chicago native, was found dead in her Texas jail cell last week. Details regarding her death have been hazy, as the incident is now being treated as a murder investigation, Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said on Tuesday.
"There are many questions that are being raised here in Waller County," Mathis said, according to BuzzFeed News. "It needs to be a thorough and exhaustive review."
Bland was pulled over on July 10 in Texas for not using a turn signal while changing lanes. After failing to put out a cigarette at the request of a police officer, the situation got worse, according to The New York Times. She was arrested and put in jail following the incident.
Brian Encinia, a Texas state trooper who was at the scene, said that during Bland's arrest she "began swinging her elbows" and kicking him, according to the arrest affidavit.
NEW: Texas DPS Trooper says #SandraBland swung her elbows and kicked him in the shin: pic.twitter.com/xrFBgFPKDW
— Ross Weidner (@RossWeidner) July 21, 2015
Encinia added that she was "combative and uncooperative" after he pulled her over and that she was "removed from the vehicle." He said "force was used to subdue Bland to the ground" and that she continued to "fight back."
Three days after being put in jail, Bland's dead body was found in her cell. Waller County sheriff's officials beleive Bland hanged herself using a trash bag. Her friends and family beg to differ, saying that she "had a lot of things going on in her life for good," according to The New York Times.
Since Bland's death, a cell phone video of her being pulled over, as well as a security video from the jail of officers discovering her body, have been released. The New York Times has a comprehensive timeline of events based off of the known evidence and both videos:
"A Waller County sheriff's official described a timeline for the jail cell of the woman, Sandra Bland, that started early in the morning of July 13, when she refused a breakfast tray around 6:30 a.m., until a jailer found her hanging shortly after 9 a.m. For about 90 minutes during that period, there was no movement by jail officials in the hallway leading to her cell, according to a video that the authorities released from a camera inside the jail. ...
"Capt. Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office said that Ms. Bland replied 'I'm fine' when a jailer was conducting rounds shortly after 7 a.m. and later inquired about how to make a phone call. But shortly after 9 a.m., a female jailer saw Ms. Bland hanging in her cell and summoned help. Other officers and emergency medical personnel tried unsuccessfully to administer CPR."
In the security footage from the jail, there is no angle of the guards actually going into Bland's cell. The FBI is searching the hard drives of computers at the jail to see if any of the surveillance videos have been edited.
On the request of Mathis, Texas Rangers are testing for fingerprints on the bag Bland allegedly used to kill herself, according to Gawker.
