Sandra Bland’s family files wrongful death lawsuit
The family of an African-American woman found dead last month in a Texas jail cell after a violent arrest by a white police officer has filed a federal lawsuit against the officer and other officials.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Federal District Court in Houston against Texas state trooper Brian Encinia, who made the arrest, and two prison guards at the jail where 28-year-old Sandra Bland died, along with the Texas Department of Public Safety and Waller County.
“We are looking for Waller County and for individuals involved in this situation to take accountability,” Cannon Lambert, a lawyer for Ms. Bland’s family, said at a news conference in Houston. “This family is frustrated.”
The lawsuit, filed by Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said trooper Encinia used force inappropriately during the incident, and “caused Sandra Bland to suffer injury and death.”
It also states that the Texas law enforcement officer “demonstrated a deliberate indifference to and conscious disregard for the constitutional rights and safety of Sandra Bland.”
Bland, a resident of Illinois (seen below), was found hanged in her prison cell from an apparent suicide three days after her July 10 arrest, authorities said.
A police dashboard video that recorded the incident shows how a routine traffic stop escalated into a verbal and physical confrontation between Encinia and Bland after she refused his request to extinguish her cigarette.
The trooper was placed on administrative leave for violating procedures during the traffic stop.
Civil rights activists have raised questions about the role race may have played in her arrest and death, in a county with a long history of racial tensions.
The case has become the latest in a series of fatal encounters between African Americans and white police, drawing international condemnation.
A new Gallup survey released Tuesday shows that Americans' satisfaction with the way blacks are treated has declined to a new low.
The poll, based on Gallup's 2015 Minority Rights and Relations survey, found 49 percent of people in the US were satisfied with the treatment of African Americans, a sharp drop from two years ago, when 62 percent were satisfied.
The drop in satisfaction is likely the result of a series of high-profile and fatal incidents in the past year involving white police officers and African American citizens.
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