Her crime? Smoking a cigarette in her car.
A simple "failure to signal" traffic stop from police turned into harassment from a police officer over a cigarette then an arrest and a suspicious death.
What happened to Sandra Bland?
It started as a normal conversation but grew tense after Officer Encinia, in Waller County Texas, asked Sandra Bland to put out her cigarette, while issuing her a warning.
"I am in my car. Why do I have to put out my cigarette?"
Bland said.
"You can step on out now,"
Encinia replied.
You can watch the full video here as Bland refused to get out of her car because she had not done anything wrong. The trooper opened her door and pulled her out of the vehicle.
In the video, Encinia told Bland she was under arrest. She repeatedly asked why. The trooper does not answer, other than to say,
"I am giving you a lawful order."
At one point, after Encina aimed what appeared to be a Taser at Bland, she stepped out of her car.
“I’m going to yank you out of here,”
Encinia said as the two struggled in the car.
“I’m going to drag you out of here.”
“Don’t touch me, I’m not under arrest,”
Bland said.
“I will light you up!”
Encinia said, while pointing the Taser at Bland.
Later, she can be heard saying:
"You're a real man now. You just slammed me, knocked my head in the ground."
In her last public words before her death, Bland expressed gratitude to a man who captured her arrest on cellphone video.
"Thank you for recording. Thank you. For a traffic signal. Slammed me into the ground and everything,"
she is heard saying.
Just three days later on July 13, Bland was found hanging from a noose made from plastic trash bag in her cell at the Waller County Jail in Texas, where she was incarcerated after allegedly assaulting an officer during a July 10 traffic stop.
Her death was being investigated as a murder but Medical examiners ruled the death a suicide by hanging, and the autopsy uncovered no evidence of a violent struggle, a Texas prosecutor said.
So not only are people outraged by the injustice of the traffic stop but now she is dead?
But how did this happen?
An inmate who was held in a cell adjacent to Bland told CNN she did not hear any commotion or screaming that would suggest foul play before Bland was found dead.
The woman said Bland wasn't eating, and was emotional and often crying during her three days in the jail. She was also stressed about missing her first day of work at her new job.
"She found out her bond was $5,000, and no one -- she was calling and calling -- and no one was answering, and then after that she just broke down. She was crying and crying."
Bland was taking a new job at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She had graduated from the historically black college in 2009 and was returning as a student ambassador, according to family members.
Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland's mother, recalled one of her last conversations with her daughter.
"She said, 'Momma, now I know what my purpose is. My purpose is to go back to Texas. My purpose is to stop all social injustice in the South.'Well, baby girl, you may not have stopped it just yet but have shed more light where needed.
Do you think Sandra Bland's arrest and death were SHADY?
Some twitter users really think Sandra was already dead in her mug shot, due to her shoulders being squared as if she was laying on the ground. But Sandra has the same shoulders in multiple photos.
Though, a good question would be, why does Sandra have on an orange jumpsuit if she is simply in a holding cell?
Also, the video of the incident seems to have been altered because a portion of the video repeats when the tow truck driver comes. Officials claim it was an "uploading glitch."
Another big flag is that the details of the confrontation were not included in the original arrest warrant written by Encinia. Officials released that report 11 days after the arrest — and eight days after Bland’s death in the Waller County Jail.
Bland’s sister, Sharon Cooper, said Wednesday that the arrest was “petty” and probably motivated by the fact that Bland was from out of town.
“She was pulled over for something so insignificant because an officer felt that maybe his ego was bruised,”
Cooper said at a news conference.
“Not once did he ever say he was threatened.”Social Media users are infuriated with the way things went down and they are not holding back. How do YOU feel about it?
