The autopsy of a black woman who was found dead in a Texas jail revealed no injuries that would suggest she was killed by someone else, authorities said Thursday.
Waller County prosecutor Warren Diepraam said the autopsy showed that 28-year-old Sandra Bland had no defensive injuries on her hands that would typically indicate a struggle.
Photo from natsentinel.com |
Some lacerations or abrasions were found on her wrists. Those were consistent with a struggle while being handcuffed. The marks around Bland's neck were consistent with a suicide by hanging, Diepraam said.
Bland also had about 30 small cuts on her wrist that were probably self-inflicted within the last few weeks, he added.
She was arrested in a traffic stop three days before she was found in her cell on July 13. Her family and friends dispute the official finding that she killed herself using a noose fashioned from a plastic garbage bag.
Texas Rangers and the FBI are investigating.
Also Thursday, the woman's sister confirmed that Bland had taken prescription medication for seizures in the past.
Booking documents filled out for Bland after her arrest indicate she told staff at the jail that she had epilepsy and was taking medication for it. The forms identify the drug as Keppra.
Other forms, however, say she was not taking medication.
Company information on Keppra, which is sold in regular and extended-release forms, says that "antiepileptic drugs, including Keppra and Keppra XR, may cause suicidal thoughts or actions in a very small number of people, about 1 in 500."
Sharon Cooper told The Associated Press that her sister suffered from seizures about a decade ago but had not had any in recent years and was not on medication.
The medication was not the only inconsistency in the jail-intake papers. One questionnaire said Bland took pills in 2015 in an attempt to kill herself after losing a baby. A separate form filled out by another jail employee said the suicide attempt occurred in 2014.
Cooper said her sister had a miscarriage in May 2014, but got through it. Cooper also said she was not aware of any suicide attempt.
Asked if her sister could have been getting treatment without relatives knowing, Cooper said the family's five sisters were "above board" with each other and, if anything, "overshared."
"If it was happening, I would have known," she said.
Preliminary results of an independent autopsy arranged by the family showed bruising to deep muscle tissue in Bland's back, consistent with the officer having his knee there, Cooper said.
She would not say if there were other findings. Full results won't be in for a couple of weeks.
A woman who occupied a jail cell next to Bland said the Chicago-area woman was emotional and wept often during her three days in jail.
Alexandria Pyle told Houston television station KTRK that Bland was "sort of distraught" that a friend had not come to bail her out of jail. She said Bland told her she "was not equipped" for incarceration and thought she was the victim of an injustice.
Pyle said she heard no signs of a struggle in the cell.
Preliminary results of the Texas autopsy also showed that Bland had marijuana in her system. The drug-test results are worth noting because they could be "relevant to her state of mind," Diepraam said.
Authorities said any contradictions in the jail documents were the result of Bland's inconsistent answers to jailers' questions.
Bland's death comes after nearly a year of heightened national scrutiny of police and their dealings with black suspects, especially those who have been killed by officers or die in police custody. It has resonated on social media, with posts questioning the official account and featuring the hashtags #JusticeForSandy and #WhatHappenedToSandyBland.
Bland's family has said she was not despondent and was looking forward to starting a new job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University.
However, Bland posted a video to her Facebook page in March, saying she was suffering from "a little bit of depression as well as PTSD," or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Cooper said that "everyone has peaks and valleys" and that the Facebook video might indicate her sister was just having a bad day or a bad few days.
A video of her arrest taken from the officer's dashcam shows state trooper Brian Encinia drawing a stun gun and threatening Bland when she refuses to follow his orders.
The episode began when the trooper stopped Bland for failing to signal a lane change.
The conversation turned hostile after the officer asked Bland to put out her cigarette and she asked why she can't smoke in her own car. The trooper then ordered Bland to get out of the vehicle. She refused, and he told her she was under arrest.
The roadside encounter swiftly escalated into a shouting confrontation, with the officer threatening to drag her out of the car. At one point, he warned Bland, "I will light you up."
The trooper, who has been on the force for just over a year, has been placed on administrative leave for violating unspecified police procedures and the department's courtesy policy.
CULLED from yahoonews
So what happened to her?How could she have used garbage plastic to hang herself?How did it get into her cell?besides garbage plastic isnt that strong!
This people should fear God when they are lying.
Whites taught the world how to lie. If the Jews can lie that the disciples of Jesus came to collect his body in the grave, why wont this people lie.
ReplyDeleteOyibo people synonyms to lies.
Check out her fb posts, she's been posting about how black lives matter etc. she said there are some bad eggs amongst each race but doesn't want everybody to be painted with the same brush etc. she even said she knows that not all white people are racist and she wants the good ones among them to come out and protest against the recent killings of black men by police officers. Guess this was the response of police officers to her posts. The cop who arrested her slammed her head to the ground, she said she has epilepsy, he was kneeling on her back and she said she couldn't breath etc. the footage released by the police from their car recording was edited, some parts were removed before they released it to the public, a tow truck man was shown walking past the camera (eg. From right to left) and then shown walking past it again from right to left without showing when he walked back first (eg. From left to right). Which means parts of the video was cut out to hide some things. The cop was heard saying she was kicking him etc but a passerby took pics of the cop kneeling down on her back while her face was on the ground. These people killed her and they're truing to claim its suicide. Simple!!
DeleteHmmmm interesting. I would like to know what race the person next to her cell belongs. I mean Pyle, the one who confirmed that she was crying and depressed bcos no one had come to bail her. And I would also like to know if this witness who's also in jail will be released soon...and possibly know what she's in jail for. If her testimony is false, it is likely that she would be compensated by getting a deal to be let off sooner than she was meant to leave jail. Just having a wild party with my thoughts with this development.
DeleteRip beautiful soul.
ReplyDeleteExactly.the whole story is confusing.hrd ds news 3days ago on al.jazeera.she was arrested cos she didnt use her trafficator light or something. R.i.p madam. God knows d truth behind ur death
ReplyDeletePeople are saying she was already dead in the pic in her mugshot, the background in their mugshot room is different and the background in her mugshot is the same as the floor in the cel she died in. Her pics are being compared to other suspects who have been snapped in the same police station. Looks like they put her in cel without booking her in, killed her and then tried to cover up. The plot is just thickening.
DeleteRIP TO HER BUT SUICIDE IS NVER AN OPTION...TOMJERRYSWIT
ReplyDeleteRip pretty lady with great smile.... Enough of the dead post Stella...
ReplyDeletekeep smiling
no be small o make dem fear GOD
ReplyDelete#GODWIN™
Hmmmm
ReplyDeleteWell am not a witch so how am I expected to know who killed her?
ReplyDeletea.k.a EDWIN CHINEDU AZUBUKO said..
ReplyDelete.
To be frank this woman stubborness kill... Of only she obeyed the cops orders frm the start she would have been alive nw.. RIP....
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***CURRENTLY IN JUPITER***
The autopsy sounds complicated....
ReplyDeleteMore to it.
ReplyDeleteThis life sef!
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteOnly God knows what happened !
Rip
Diarisgoduo
ReplyDeleteAs in ehn i'm tired of these America police wt d false stories cook.
ReplyDeleteBland ws just arrested&kept in jail4nothing. One cud imagine d way d stupid office stepped on her back while she ws already on d floor. America seems to b a country who preaches most tins dey don't practice. Too sad bland died. Rip2her
May her soul r.i.p
ReplyDeleteIts a pity. Whatever is hidden shall be made manifest one day.
ReplyDeleteComments on Farrah Gray really opened my eyes to the race issue in Amelica.
ReplyDeleteThis is sad,very sad
Been following this gist since yesterday on instagram and there is no way in hell this bloody racists will tell me she killed herself.
ReplyDeleteCarbage plastics are not even allowed in the cells, so how did that one get there? America is the headquarter of racism. I hate this torture,this is way toomuch!
What could have happened to her? The whites have always hate the blacks! Why? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteAs in ehn i'm tired of these America police wt d false stories cook.
ReplyDeleteBland ws just arrested&kept in jail4nothing. One cud imagine d way d stupid office stepped on her back while she ws already on d floor. America seems to b a country who preaches most tins dey don't practice. Too sad bland died. Rip2her
Very Very Messy!
ReplyDeleteHer family should not let go until they get to the bottom of this.
Hope for the sake of that company manufacturing the epileptic drug that they indicated mood swings as one of the side effects. I see a lot of Law suits here!
That police man that arrested her was out of line for using those words.
Just too fishy biko.
The cops were either violent or not professional in dealing with an offender that indicated she was on Meds!
Only God knows what really happened. My question is why would the cops kill her and lie? Is she the only black person in the cell? I have been Houston for a about a week and the people I meet here are the nicest and friendliest I have ever met anywhere. If they are racist, then they hide it very well.
ReplyDeleteShut up
DeleteYou are just oyibostruck
Anon 13:28 Read and comprehend.
DeleteThat is the white people for you. People that have been in this country for long know that most of their smiles are fake. So don't just judge by how they react or smile to you. Most of the white people will rather have a dog or cat as roommate than share a block with any black person
DeleteMay her soul rest in peace
ReplyDeleteThere is more to this story and they are all bunch of liars .RIP pretty one.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if the African voodoo were theyd summon dead to avenge who ever kill them works ... If it does its high time these African Americans should start implementing such ..to avenge deaths of blacks. I bet we are good at using voodoo to ruin our own but not to save own ..oh well, what do I know.
ReplyDeleteLBC.
Been waiting for you to carry the story Stella .
ReplyDeleteIt's a very important one .
If u watch the video of her arrest, you hear clearly scream ,you just hit my head on the ground ..i can't hear anymore from my ears , she was screaming ..and the police man was so hostile !
Then she was kept in the station on something that was so trivial ...for God sake , why must she go to the cell for something so insignificant as a traffic signal violation ???? Wtf is wrong with white people ! If she wer white would the police man have been that aggressive ???
So she goes into the cell , speaks to her sis then allegedly commits sucide !!! What the actual fuck ??! And this is someone who has Facebook videos speaking against police brutality on black people ... I smell more than a rat ! This has got to stop !!!
#justiceforsandrabland
Something is fishy here
ReplyDeleteStella God bless you for sharing this story, i've been following it up for some days now, will probably send you some analysed facts I found on twitter, especially the controversy surrounding her mugshot, because most persons are saying she was already dead in it and they had proofs. Don't know what this world is turning into. May she RIP
ReplyDeleteYou call tell she was dead in the mugshot. He locks of hair were falling back not down like she was lay down not against a wall. Her fat on her face fell to near her ears to show that she was lay down. The right side of the picture (which is her left side of her face) was drooped down and that only happens in circumstances usually when dead.
ReplyDeletePeople really think that the cops would of killed her and left it? They would of killed her there and then in her sell hung her to make the marks on her neck and make everyone else believe she committed suicide.