Sandra Bland death: Video of 2015 Texas traffic stop surfaces
Sandra Bland death: A shocking cell phone video of Sandra Bland’s 2015 Texas traffic stop has surfaced four years after her suicide cell death.
The video shows trooper putting taser in Sandra’s face and threatening to ‘light her up’.
The cell phone video was filmed by Sandra Bland during the traffic stop that led to her arrest and her tragic death.
Sandra Bland death:
28 year old Sandra Bland was found hanging in her cell in a Texas jail in July 2015 three days after her controversial arrest. Her death was ruled a suicide.
The clip, which was obtained by WFAA, begins at the most dramatic moment of the arrest near Prairie View A&M University.
Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia had pulled Bland over for failing to signal a lane change. He then demanded that she get out of her car. He yelled at her in the footage as she records him:
‘Get out of the car, now!’
Sandra asks:
‘Why am I being apprehended? You’re trying to give me a ticket, why am I being apprehended?’
‘You just opened my car door, you just opened my car door, you’re threatening to drag me out of my own car.’
Encinia screams again, pointing his Taser at Bland:
‘Get out of the car!’ ‘I am going to light you up, get out, now! Get out of the car!’
‘Wow, wow, this is for a failure to signal, you are doing all of this for a failure to signal,’ Bland said as she steps out of her car.
‘Right, yeah, let’s take this to court, let’s do it. For a failure to signal, for a failure to signal.’
‘Get off the phone, get off the phone,’ Encinia demands.
‘I’m not on the phone,’ Bland tells him. ‘I have a right to record, this is my property.’
‘Put your phone down right now,’ the trooper yells again before the footage cuts out.
Encinia, who was fired after being indicted for perjury over the traffic stop, said he came to fear for his safety after stopping Bland for failing to signal a lane change.
The perjury charge was later dropped in exchange for Encinia agreeing to never work in law enforcement again.
This is the first time many people, even in Bland’s own family, knew about a cell phone video
The emergence of the cell phone video raised questions about who had actually seen it before this week.
Cannon Lambert, an attorney for the Bland family who settled lawsuits against the state and county jail that totaled nearly $2million combined, said he never saw the clip until it was recently shared by a reporter.
Lambert also said Bland’s footage proves that she was doing nothing in the car that put the trooper at any risk.
Shante Needham, Bland’s sister, believes the video is enough to open her case back up
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