The probe into Sandra Bland’s hanging death inside a Texas jail, which a medical examiner has ruled a suicide, now includes the possibility of murder, reports the Texas Tribune. “This is being treated like a murder investigation,” Elton Mathis, Waller County’s district attorney, said yesterday. Mathis made the determination after talking to Bland’s family and to those who saw her last, including a bail bondsman who was among the last to hear from her alive. Bland, 28, was found dead on July 13 inside the Waller County Jail, three days after she had been pulled over by Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia for an improper lane change.
She was taken to the jail on a charge of assaulting a public servant during the traffic stop. “There are too many questions that need to be resolved. Ms. Bland’s family does make valid points. She did have a lot of things going on in her life for good,” Mathis said. The dashboard video of the traffic stop will be released today. Mathis said Bland was not “compliant” with the officer’s directions. “Sandra Bland was very combative. It was not a model traffic stop. It was not a model person that was stopped,” Mathis said. Several agencies, including the Texas Rangers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have announced investigations into Bland’s death. A partial video of the arrest, shot by a bystander and uploaded to the Internet, has prompted outrage. Bland can be heard yelling at what appears to be two officers who are talking to her as she lies face-down on the ground, her hands cuffed. She shouts that she can’t feel her arms.