Texas Rangers, FBI Investigate Naperville Woman's Jail-Cell Death

Photo: Sandra Bland, left, is shown here with her mother.

The death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old woman who had been moving from Illinois to Texas to start a new job, has been ruled a suicide by the Harris County medical examiner and now the FBI and the Texas Rangers are stepping in to investigate her death.

Bland was found dead in a Texas jail cell around 9 a.m. Monday, July 13. On Friday, July 10, she was pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. That’s when she allegedly kicked an officer and was arrested.

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Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis told the Chicago Sun-Times he had no reason to think Bland didn’t kill herself and added that the Texas Rangers would conduct a thorough investigation.

“If I receive information that there’s something nefarious going on, or foul play, we will certainly get to the bottom of that,” he said. “I understand there’s some disbelief among some friends and family that she would do this to herself. That’s why it’s very important that the Texas Rangers be allowed to conduct a thorough investigation.”

Mathis did state that he thought it was strange for someone who had “everything going for her” to take her own life.

Bland had accepted a job at Prairie View A&M in Prairie View, where Bland had graduated from in 2009.

Bland’s friend LaVaughn Mosley told KPRC Houston the idea that Bland killed herself is ridiculous.

“Anyone who knows Sandy Bland knows she has a thirst for life,” Mosley told KPRC. “She was planning for the future, and she came here to start that future, so to say she killed herself is totally absurd.”

It’s also come to light that Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, who made the first public comments about Bland’s death, was suspended for documented cases of racism in 2007 when he was chief of police in Hempstead, Texas, according reports in the Houston Chronicle.

After his suspension, he was subsequently fired from his position when more allegations of racist conduct came in.