Ambiguous details surrounding Sandra Bland, a black woman who died in her jail cell on Monday morning, are causing throngs of social media users to join her family and friends in raising suspicion over potential foul play at Waller County Jail in Texas.
Bland, a 28-year-old from Chicago, had been pulled over for failing to use her turn signal while changing lanes and was arrested after allegedly assaulting a police officer
during the encounter, according to ABC 7. She was found dead hanging inside her jail cell around 9 a.m. on Monday. Officials originally deemed her to death to be the result of “self-inflicted asphyxiation.”
“I do not have any information that would make me think it was anything other than just a suicide,” said Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis, according to ABC 7.
Bland’s friends and families immediately challenged the suicide story, saying that Bland, who was going to start a new job in a few days at her alma mater Prairie View A&M, had no reason to kill herself.
“She was planning for the future, and she came here to start for that future, so to say that she killed herself is totally absurd,”
said friend Lavaghn Mosley, according to KPRC-TV.
Furor surrounding her arrest exploded after a video of the incident surfaced. In the clip, Bland can be heard saying, “You just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can't even hear!”
“I understand there’s some disbelief among some friends and family that she would do this to herself,” said
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis, according to The New York Times. “That’s why it’s very important that the Texas Rangers be allowed to conduct a thorough investigation.”
Well more than 24,000 social media users have tweeted their frustration since Monday using the hashtag #SandraBland, and an online petition has been called for the Justice Department to investigate Bland’s death.
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