Jail video points to why Sandra Bland’s family says her death is a mystery

The Waller County district attorney’s office has released a three-hour surveillance video that shows the hallway of the Hempstead, Texas, jail where Sandra Bland was found dead in cell 95 on July 13.

The 28-year-old African American woman was found hanging by a plastic trash bag from a bathroom privacy partition in her cell -- a death that has thrust her case into the national debate over race and policing.

An initial autopsy report classified Bland’s death as a suicide. But her family, friends and activists have disputed this, saying such a promising young woman about to start a new job as a college outreach worker would not have killed herself.

Waller County Dist. Atty. Elton Mathis, who released the video, said Bland’s death is being investigated by local officials as a possible homicide.

Family attorney Cannon Lambert said the video offers no insight into Bland’s death and points to the need for an independent investigation.

The Times has edited the three-hour video to show the movement inside the jail in the hours leading up to Bland’s death. Officials also released a chronology describing what jail personnel were doing at the time.

The video says it starts at timestamp 6:03 a.m., but it is actually nine minutes, 26 seconds fast. At the start, jail officers can be seen serving breakfast, with Bland refusing a tray.

According to the timestamp, about 6:51 a.m., an officer can be seen entering cell 95 for a security check.

At 7:17 a.m., a different male officer can be seen peering into the rectangular window of cell 95 and, according to the chronology, “checking on Ms. Bland.�

About 30 seconds later, another officer stops at cell 95 and appears to be talking to Bland for several seconds.

There’s then a gap in the video -- from 7:18 a.m. to 7:24 a.m.

At a news conference Monday, Mathis said the video is motion-activated, so “there’s going to be some gaps.�

“At this point, we don’t believe there was any editing. These have not been analyzed by the FBI yet,� he said.

From 7:34 a.m. to 9:07 a.m., the video shows no movement in or out of cell 95.

Then, about 9:07 a.m., a female officer can be seen checking the window of cell 95 and then running for help. She returns with a male officer, and others soon join them, some performing CPR on Bland.

At 9:13 a.m., paramedics can be seen entering the jail and then cell 95. By 9:16 a.m., a paramedic pronounces Bland dead, and the crew can be seen leaving a minute later.

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