Friend: Sandra Bland 'in good spirits' before jail death
Even after one video surfaced showing the 28-year-old talking in March about depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, those who knew her said she would not have killed herself inside a Texas jail cell — not even over the confrontational traffic stop that led to her arrest, which mirrored the ones she railed against online.
Bland's death comes amid increased national scrutiny of police after a series of high-profile cases in which blacks have been killed by officers.
In January, Bland began posting cellphone videos to her Facebook page under the title "Sandy Speaks" in which she groused about everything from inattentive parents and police mistreatment of blacks to what she called the "generation of heads down" — all of us with our heads buried in our smartphones.
In Chicago Thursday, her sisters told reporters nothing in Bland's background pointed to a troubled mental state.
In the past few weeks, Bland applied for a community outreach job at Prairie View A&M with the family and consumer sciences section of its cooperative extension program.
Staffers work with underserved residents on issues that including parenting, money management, nutrition and wellness.
On her way back, a state trooper stopped her for failing to signal a lane change.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that the trooper who stopped Bland violated traffic stop procedures and the department's courtesy policy.