The prosecutors’ presentation Thursday afternoon included several color photographs of Bland’s body, including her neck, which had a thick dark line curving across it. Other images showed a close-up view of her eye, and her back, which had marks that looked to be from scratching and scraping. Waller County officials later said that the circumstances of her death had so many open questions that they would investigate it as a potential homicide. However hours later when asked the same questions by the same intake officer, Bland said “No”. At one point, he warned Bland, “I will light you up”. “Nothing is certain”.
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State authorities who inspected the jail after Howell’s death found the county at fault for failing to observe inmates face-to-face every hour – the same noncompliance violation inspectors found with the Waller County jail in the wake of Bland’s death.
Jail personnel found her not breathing and hanging from a trash bag on the morning of July 13. “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind (Bland committed suicide)”, he said.
Also on Thursday, the woman’s sister confirmed that Bland had taken prescription medication for seizures in the past.
Police officials said the original version had not been edited.
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”.
Jailhouse documents give a conflicting picture of Bland’s mental state. And there are check marks next to “yes” on questions about depression and suicidal thoughts.
“I have a hard time dealing with inconsistency and that seems to have been the theme over the last couple of days here”, Bland’s sister, Sharon Cooper said.
Preliminary results of the autopsy also showed that Bland had marijuana in her system.
“The fact that it occurred again would be just one of those things that do happen”, Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, told msnbc.
Pyle added she didn’t hear any signs of struggle from Bland’s cell.
Lavaughn Mosley said he also spoke with Bland directly while she was in the Waller County jail and that she didn’t sound depressed. The district attorney’s office said the discrepancy in the forms was because Bland changed her answers, not because of input error.
Friend: “Something went terribly wrong”. She refused, and he told her she was under arrest. She was jailed on a charge of assaulting a public servant.
“I am in my auto”.
Video of the stop shows the state trooper, who is white, drawing a stun gun and threatening Bland, who was black, when she refuses to follow his orders to get out of the vehicle.
In his arrest warrant affidavit, Encinia wrote that Bland became “combative and uncooperative” and that she was placed in handcuffs “for officer safety”.
The attorney for the Bland family told a news conference in the Chicago area that the family was aware of the comments but had not seen the official reports.
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Medical examiners have ruled Bland’s death a suicide by hanging, seeing no indication of a struggle that would suggest a potential homicide.
