HEMPSTEAD, Texas — Friends’ recollections and Sandra Bland’s own words present a picture of a young woman on the cusp of finding her niche in life. She seemed to have landed a perfect job. She had a voice and following
HEMPSTEAD, Texas — Friends’ recollections and Sandra Bland’s own words present a picture of a young woman on the cusp of finding her niche in life. She seemed to have landed a perfect job. She had a voice and following on social media for speaking out about racial injustice and police brutality and was active in her community.
Even after one video surfaced showing the 28-year-old talking in March about depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, those who knew her said she would not have killed herself inside a Texas jail cell — not even over the confrontational traffic stop that led to her arrest, which mirrored the ones she railed against online.
On Friday, about 100 protesters marched from the Walter County jail — where authorities say she hanged herself with a plastic bag on Monday — to the courthouse in Hempstead, where several other friends of hers also expressed disbelief.
The death of Bland, who was black, comes amid increased national scrutiny of police after a series of high-profile cases in which blacks have been killed by officers. Friends and family have questioned authorities’ account of how she died.
Bland grew up in the Chicago suburb of Naperville. Known in her family as Sandy B, she was the fourth of five sisters. She was active in her family’s church and was the only one of her sisters to go to college out of state. She studied at the College of Agriculture at Prairie View A&M University, a historically black school 40 miles northwest of Houston.
In the past few weeks, Bland applied for a community outreach job at Prairie View A&M with the family and consumer sciences section of its cooperative extension program. Staffers work with underserved residents on issues that including parenting, money management, nutrition and wellness.
Authorities say she “became argumentative and uncooperative” and kicked an officer. She was arrested for assault on a public servant.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that the state trooper who stopped Bland violated traffic stop procedures and the department’s courtesy policy. How the trooper violated procedures is “still being determined,” according to agency spokesman Tom Vinger.
The trooper is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
