The death of Sandra Bland, who died in police custody after being detained during a traffic stop, was met with nothing short of suspicion after officials ruled it a suicide. Since her arrest and subsequent death, the public has been seeking answers as to what actually went down. Dashcam footage of her arrest was released a few years ago but as it turns out, Bland also recorded the incident on her cellphone and the footage is now being released to the public.
State Trooper Brian Encina threatened to "drag" Sandra Bland out of her car after she asked him why she's being apprehended. In the dash cam footage that was released in 2015, he got aggressive with her after she refused to put out a cigarette she was smoking in her car.
The footage then shows Encina pointing a taser at Bland. "And then you’re going to stun me?" she asked."
"I will light you up," he replied.
The 39-second cellphone clip that was shot by Bland was obtained by an investigative news program on WFAA. Prior to the release of this footage, it was believed that the dash cam footage was the only visual evidence of the arrest. Bland's family said they haven't seen the footage before and officials never released it to the public in the past.
Encina previously said that he feared for his life during the traffic stop, but this footage clearly shows otherwise. Now, her family wants the case re-opened.
“Open up the case, period,” Bland’s sister Shante Needham said when shown the video. “We also know they have an extremely, extremely good cover-up system,” she added. “[The video] not only shows that [Encinia] lied, but that he really had no business even stopping her, period... And at the end of the day, he needs to go to jail.”
