Nearly four years after Sandra Bland was pulled over by a Texas state trooper, arrested and put in a jail cell where she was found…
Nearly four years after Sandra Bland was pulled over by a Texas state trooper, arrested and put in a jail cell where she was found dead days later, a cellphone video that Bland took of her traffic stop has surfaced.
Bland’s family members now say they want her case reopened.
«Open up the case, period,» Bland’s sister, Shante Needham, said after seeing the video, according to TV station WFAA in Dallas. The family’s former lawyer says the state never turned over the footage, which Texas officials dispute.
The main record of Bland’s controversial arrest had been dashcam footage captured by a state trooper’s SUV in Prairie View, Texas. But that changed Monday night with the release of Bland’s recording, which was acquired by reporter Brian Collister of the Investigative Network and broadcast on WFAA.
«What this video shows is, it’s almost literally through Sandra Bland’s eyes,» Collister tells member station Houston Public Media, in an interview Tuesday for the Houston Matters show.
The newly released video shows 39 seconds of the roadside encounter that sharply escalated after state Trooper Brian Encinia pulled Bland over for failing to signal a lane change.
In the footage, Encinia is heard ordering Bland out of her car. She asks why — and Encinia responds by drawing his Taser, pointing it directly at Bland and yelling at her, «I will light you up!»
«Wow,» Bland says as she gets out and moves around the back of the car with the officer.
