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Video of Sandra Bland's Arrest Before Her Death in Jail

A 52-minute video of the arrest of a black woman who later died in the Waller County Jail includes a screaming match between the woman and a state trooper, who yells at her: "I will light you up!"



By Bobby Blanchard
 
A 52-minute video of the arrest of a black woman who later died in the Waller County Jail includes a screaming match between the woman and a state trooper, who yells at her: "I will light you up!"
 
Since 28-year-old Sandra Bland was arrested last week and found dead in a jail cell three days later, her story has sparked nationwide outrage and questions about whether the traffic stop was legitimate and whether Bland, whose death was ruled a suicide, was properly supervised and cared for at the jail.
 
Her arrest came after she was pulled over for failing to signal before changing lanes. The video of the traffic stop, released Tuesday, shows state Trooper Brian Encinia, 30, asking Bland to put out a cigarette. When she refused, he told her to step out of the car. He tried to remove her and began pointing a Taser at her while yelling.
 
"You doing all this for a failure to signal?" Bland asked at one point.
 
Most of the rest of the confrontation took place outside the camera's view, but their yelling can still be heard on the video.
 
Encinia's arrest affidavit, also released Tuesday, says he suffered pains in his right leg and small cuts on his right hand because of the altercation with Bland. His affidavit does not mention the cigarette or the Taser.
 
Since Bland's death, Encinia has been placed on administrative duties after he was found to have violated procedures. Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said Encinia was not courteous to Bland and did not show professionalism.
 
Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said Monday that he is treating Bland's death as a murder investigation, which he said is typical for jail deaths. The Texas Rangers, along with the FBI, is leading a formal investigation into the incident.
 
On Monday, officials released a three-hour video of footage from inside the Waller County Jail during the time Bland was held there. The video showed no one entering Bland's cell before she died. The footage, from outside her cell, does not capture her death.
 
After officials met behind closed doors for almost three hours Tuesday, they promised transparency and justice for Bland. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged that the grand jury investigating the case would be diverse.
 
"Here in Texas, we believe in total transparency," Patrick said. "We will find the truth where that leads."
 
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said that Bland did not deserve to be arrested and that she bore no responsibility for her arrest or death.
 
Patrick, however, said "those facts are still being determined."
 
Medical examiners initially ruled the death a suicide. Bland's family has said she gave no indication of mental health troubles before her arrest, but Bland apparenlty wrote on Facebook that she had suffered depression.
 
Bland's family met with Mathis and Waller County Judge Carbett J. Duhon III. In a written statement, Duhon said no stone would be left unturned in the investigation.
 
The state Commission on Jail Standards cited Waller County's facility last week for failure to document training for jailers on handling inmates with a mental disability or those who may be suicidal. The panel also criticized the jail for not observing inmates often enough.
 
Waller County and the Prairie View A&M campus, from which Bland graduated and where she was about to start a new job, were quiet early Tuesday before the video was released. A small collection of stone angels and candles, along with several photos of Bland, sat outside the Waller County Jail.
Courtney Mayes, a 19-year-old freshman at Prairie View, said she does not feel safe driving in Waller County after the incident.
 
"I feel a little scared -- it's so close to home. You would think you would hear about this in a different state," Mayes said. "She went to that church, she went to this school, and she was about to work here."
 
Just hours after the video of Bland's arrest was released, the pews were filled at the Johnson Phillip All Faiths Church on Prairie View's campus Tuesday night for an hourlong memorial service.
Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, told an energized crowd while pacing back and forth that "something occurred that is going to change the world."
 
Before Bland returned to Texas from the Chicago area, Reed-Veal said, her daughter told her: "My purpose is to go back to Texas and stop all the injustices in the South."
 
Reed-Veal also spoke of her grief.
 
"I have a baby to put in the ground," she said. "She wasn't my convict, she wasn't my suspect -- she was my baby."
 
She told the crowd that her daughter was excited about her future -- and that the initial reports of her daughter dying by suicide did not make sense.
 
"There is not anywhere I could see that my baby took her own life," Reed-Veal said.
She ended on a grim note.
 
 
"Once I put this baby in the ground ... I'm ready ... this means war," Reed-Veal said.
 
(c)2015 The Dallas Morning News
Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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