A new police video showing the arrest of Sandra Bland, the African-American woman who died in police custody this month, was released Wednesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety after the organization was accused of distributing an edited version of the video on Tuesday.
Independent journalist Ben Norton appeared to be the first to notice the inconsistencies in the initial video uploaded to YouTube by the department. This was brought to the attention of several news outlets, who asked the department if the footage had been edited.
"Yesterday's video was not edited," DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said in a statement of response. "The entire video was uploaded Tuesday to include the audio and video of the conversation the trooper had by telephone with his sergeant, which occurred after the arrest. Some of the video was affected in the upload. That technical issue has now been resolved."
The video uploaded Tuesday was 52 minutes and 12 seconds in length. The video uploaded Wednesday was 49 minutes and 11 seconds in length.
Bland, 28, had recently moved from Illinois to Texas to start a new job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M, when she was pulled over by state trooper Brian Encinia on July 10 for failing to use her turn signal.
The traffic stop escalated after Encinia asked Bland to put out her cigarette, and she refused. The situation continued to escalate, and at one point Encinia pulled out his Taser, telling Bland, "I will light you up."
Bland was arrested and charged with assault on a public servant. Three days later, she died by hanging in her jail cell with a plastic bag over her head. A medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, however Bland's family disputes that finding.
The Texas Rangers and the FBI soon opened an investigation into the death.
"It is too early to make any kind of determination that this was a suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete," Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis told reporters at a press conference,
People magazine reported. "This is being treated like a murder investigation."
Here is the newly released Bland video:
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