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| Sharon Cooper, sister of Sharon Bland, addresses the media during a news conference at Dupage African Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday, July 22, 2015, in Lisle, Ill. Bland was arrested and taken to the Waller County jail, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Houston on July 10 and found dead July 13. Officials say Bland hanged herself with a plastic garbage bag in her jail cell, a contention her family and supporters dispute. |
HEMPSTEAD, Texas
(AP) -- The autopsy of a black woman who was found dead in a Texas
jail revealed no injuries that would suggest she was killed by someone
else, authorities said Thursday.
Waller County
prosecutor Warren Diepraam said the autopsy showed that 28-year-old
Sandra Bland had no defensive injuries on her hands that would typically
indicate a struggle.
Some lacerations or
abrasions were found on her wrists. Those were consistent with a
struggle while being handcuffed. The marks around Bland's neck were
consistent with a suicide by hanging, Diepraam said.
Bland also had about 30 small cuts on her wrist that were probably self-inflicted within the last few weeks, he added.
She
was arrested in a traffic stop three days before she was found in her
cell on July 13. Her family and friends dispute the official finding
that she killed herself using a noose fashioned from a plastic garbage
bag.
Texas Rangers and the FBI are investigating.
Also Thursday, the woman's sister confirmed that Bland had taken prescription medication for seizures in the past.
Booking
documents filled out for Bland after her arrest indicate she told staff
at the jail that she had epilepsy and was taking medication for it. The
forms identify the drug as Keppra.
Other forms, however, say she was not taking medication.
Company
information on Keppra, which is sold in regular and extended-release
forms, says that "antiepileptic drugs, including Keppra and Keppra XR,
may cause suicidal thoughts or actions in a very small number of people,
about 1 in 500."
Sharon Cooper told The
Associated Press that her sister suffered from seizures about a decade
ago but had not had any in recent years and was not on medication.
The
medication was not the only inconsistency in the jail-intake papers.
One questionnaire said Bland took pills in 2015 in an attempt to kill
herself after losing a baby. A separate form filled out by another jail
employee said the suicide attempt occurred in 2014.
Cooper
said her sister had a miscarriage in May 2014, but got through it.
Cooper also said she was not aware of any suicide attempt.
Asked
if her sister could have been getting treatment without relatives
knowing, Cooper said the family's five sisters were "above board" with
each other and, if anything, "overshared."
"If it was happening, I would have known," she said.
Preliminary
results of an independent autopsy arranged by the family showed
bruising to deep muscle tissue in Bland's back, consistent with the
officer having his knee there, Cooper said.
She would not say if there were other findings. Full results will not be in for a couple of weeks.
A
woman who occupied a jail cell next to Bland said the Chicago-area
woman was emotional and wept often during her three days in jail.
Alexandria
Pyle told Houston television station KTRK that Bland was "sort of
distraught" that a friend had not come to bail her out of jail. She said
Bland told her she "was not equipped" for incarceration and thought she
was the victim of an injustice.
Pyle said she heard no signs of a struggle in the cell.
Preliminary
results of the Texas autopsy also showed that Bland had marijuana in
her system. The drug-test results are worth noting because they could be
"relevant to her state of mind," Diepraam said.
Authorities said any contradictions in the jail documents were the result of Bland's inconsistent answers to
jailers' questions.
Bland's
death comes after nearly a year of heightened national scrutiny of
police and their dealings with black suspects, especially those who have
been killed by officers or die in police custody. It has resonated on
social media, with posts questioning the official account and featuring
the hashtags (hash)JusticeForSandy and (hash)WhatHappenedToSandyBland.
Bland's
family has said she was not despondent and was looking forward to
starting a new job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University.
However,
Bland posted a video to her Facebook page in March, saying she was
suffering from "a little bit of depression as well as PTSD," or
post-traumatic stress disorder.
Cooper said
that "everyone has peaks and valleys" and that the Facebook video might
indicate her sister was just having a bad day or a bad few days.
A
video of her arrest taken from the officer's dashcam shows state
trooper Brian Encinia drawing a stun gun and threatening Bland when she
refuses to follow his orders.
The episode began when the trooper stopped Bland for failing to signal a lane change.
The
conversation turned hostile after the officer asked Bland to put out
her cigarette and she asked why she can't smoke in her own car. The
trooper then ordered Bland to get out of the vehicle. She refused, and
he told her she was under arrest.
The roadside
encounter swiftly escalated into a shouting confrontation, with the
officer threatening to drag her out of the car. At one point, he warned
Bland, "I will light you up."
The trooper, who
has been on the force for just over a year, has been placed on
administrative leave for violating unspecified police procedures and the
department's courtesy policy.
