On Monday, Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams dove into the Sandra Bland case, decrying what he said was a far bigger issue at work. Bland, who was pulled over for changing lanes while failing to signal, died under suspicious circumstances in police custody on July 13.
In 24 posts on Twitter, Williams argued the real problem was not the single case of Sandra Bland or the state trooper who arrested her, but the double standard of how some Americans can exercise their rights while others cannot.
"A select segment of Americans are granted the privilege of being able to resist said tyranny, scream at it, punch, shove or elude it," Williams wrote in his tweets. "For membership consideration, this club has ONE requirement: the citizen(s) resisting police/the law/status quo must be white." Williams implied that had Bland been white, she would have been lauded online for standing up for her rights and resisting police tyranny.
Every time the story involves a black citizen, doing far less, presumed guilt BEGINS as their's to shed. But one cannot shed blackness.
"Blackness is born to be w/ 2.9 strikes. A life that can & will be snatched by it's nation at any time, any place. Any age, any gender."
Click here to see entire tweet concerning the Sandra Bland Murder
Death_of_Sandra_Bland by Wikipedia
The Transcript Of Sandra Bland's Arrest Is As Revealing As The Video
Ryan Grim
Washington bureau chief for The Huffington PostA close look at the police car dashcam video that recorded the exchange shows her questions had merit: Encinia at every occasion escalates the tension. He tells Bland, a Black Lives Matter activist, she's under arrest before she has even left her car, shouts at her for moving after ordering her to move, refuses to answer questions about why she's being arrested and, out of the camera's view, apparently slams her to the ground. He gets testy with her -- "Are you done?" -- when she explains after he points out she seems irritated. And, contrary to a recent Supreme Court decision, he unconstitutionally extends the traffic stop, it appears, out of spite.
The video also shows that Encina never actually ordered Bland to put out her cigarette, but rather asked her politely, to which she responded with a question. To which he answered with aggression.
At times, the confrontation becomes chaotic, but a transcript shows Bland answering the trooper's questions, asserting her rights, and, eventually, directly challenging his treatment of her -- an evaluation shared by some police officers who've watched the video.
The following exchange -- transcribed with the help of HuffPost's Matt Ramos and Dhyana Taylor -- comes after the dashcam video shows Encinia quickly driving toward the rear of Bland's car.
State Trooper Brian Encinia: Hello ma’am. We’re the Texas Highway Patrol and the reason for your stop is because you failed to signal the lane change. Do you have your driver’s license and registration with you? What’s wrong? How long have you been in Texas?
Sandra Bland: Got here just today.
Encinia: OK. Do you have a driver's license? (Pause) OK, where you headed to now? Give me a few minutes.
(Bland inaudible)
(Encinia returns to his car for several minutes, then approaches Bland again.)
Encinia: OK, ma'am. (Pause.) You OK?
Bland: I'm waiting on you. This is your job. I'm waiting on you. When're you going to let me go?
Encinia: I don't know, you seem very really irritated.
Bland: I am. I really am. I feel like it's crap what I'm getting a ticket for. I was getting out of your way. You were speeding up, tailing me, so I move over and you stop me. So yeah, I am a little irritated, but that doesn’t stop you from giving me a ticket, so [inaudible] ticket.
Encinia: Are you done?
Bland: You asked me what was wrong, now I told you.
Encinia: OK.
Bland: So now I'm done, yeah.
Encinia: You mind putting out your cigarette, please? If you don't mind?
Bland: I'm in my car, why do I have to put out my cigarette?
Encinia: Well you can step on out now.
Bland: I don’t have to step out of my car.
Encinia: Step out of the car.
Bland: Why am I ...
Encinia: Step out of the car!
Bland: No, you don’t have the right. No, you don't have the right.
Encinia: Step out of the car.
Bland: You do not have the right. You do not have the right to do this.
Encinia: I do have the right, now step out or I will remove you.
Bland: I refuse to talk to you other than to identify myself. [crosstalk] I am getting removed for a failure to signal?
Encinia: Step out or I will remove you. I’m giving you a lawful order.
Get out of the car now or I’m going to remove you.
Bland: And I’m calling my lawyer.
Encinia: I’m going to yank you out of here. (Reaches inside the car.)
Bland: OK, you’re going to yank me out of my car? OK, alright.
Encinia (calling in backup): 2547.
Bland: Let’s do this.
Encinia: Yeah, we’re going to. (Grabs for Bland.)
Bland: Don’t touch me!
Encinia: Get out of the car!
Bland: Don’t touch me. Don't touch me! I’m not under arrest -- you don't have the right to take me out of the car.
Encinia: You are under arrest!
Bland: I’m under arrest? For what? For what? For what?
Encinia (to dispatch): 2547 county fm 1098 (inaudible) send me another unit. (To Bland) Get out of the car! Get out of the car now!
Bland: Why am I being apprehended? You're trying to give me a ticket for failure ...
Encinia: I said get out of the car!
Bland: Why am I being apprehended? You just opened my --
Encinia: I‘m giving you a lawful order. I’m going to drag you out of here.
Bland: So you’re threatening to drag me out of my own car?
Encinia: Get out of the car!
Bland: And then you’re going to [crosstalk] me?
Encinia: I will light you up! Get out! Now! (Draws stun gun and points it at Bland.)
Bland: Wow. Wow. (Bland exits car.)
Encinia: Get out. Now. Get out of the car!
Bland: For a failure to signal? You’re doing all of this for a failure to signal?
Encinia: Get over there.
Bland: Right. yeah, lets take this to court, let's do this.
Encinia: Go ahead.
Bland: For a failure to signal? Yup, for a failure to signal!
Encinia: Get off the phone!
Bland: (crosstalk)
Encinia: Get off the phone! Put your phone down!
Bland: I’m not on the phone. I have a right to record. This is my property. Sir?
Encinia: Put your phone down right now. Put your phone down!
(Bland slams phone down on her trunk.)
Bland: For a fucking failure to signal. My goodness. Y'all are interesting. Very interesting.
Encinia: Come over here. Come over here now.
Bland: You feelin' good about yourself?
Encinia: Stand right here. Stand right there.
Bland: You feelin' good about yourself? For a failure to signal? You feel real good about yourself don’t you? You feel good about yourself don’t you?
Encinia: Turn around. Turn around. Turn around now. Put your hands behind your back.
Bland: Why am I being arrested?
Encinia: Turn around ...
Bland: Why can't you ...
Encinia: I’m giving you a lawful order. I will tell you.
Bland: Why am I being arrested?
Encinia: Turn around!
Bland: Why won’t you tell me that part?
Encinia: I’m giving you a lawful order. Turn around ...
Bland: Why will you not tell me what's going on?
Encinia: You are not complying.
Bland: I’m not complying 'cause you just pulled me out of my car.
Encinia: Turn around.
Bland: Are you fucking kidding me? This is some bull...
Encinia: Put your hands behind your back.
Bland: 'Cause you know this straight bullshit. And you're full of shit. Full of straight shit. That's all y’all are is some straight scared cops. South Carolina got y’all bitch asses scared. That’s all it is. Fucking scared of a female.
Encinia: If you would’ve just listened.
Bland: I was trying to sign the fucking ticket -- whatever.
Encinia: Stop moving!
Bland: Are you fucking serious?
Encinia: Stop moving!
Bland: Oh I can’t wait 'til we go to court. Ooh I can’t wait. I cannot wait 'til we go to court. I can’t wait. Oh I can’t wait! You want me to sit down now?
Encinia: No.
Bland: Or are you going to throw me to the floor? That would make you feel better about yourself?
Encinia: Knock it off!
Bland: Nah that would make you feel better about yourself. That would make you feel real good wouldn't it? Pussy ass. Fucking pussy. For a failure to signal you’re doing all of this. In little ass Praire View, Texas. My God they must have ...
Encinia: You were getting a warning, until now you’re going to jail.
Bland: I’m getting a -- for what? For what?
Encinia: You can come read.
Bland: I’m getting a warning for what? For what!?
Encinia: Stay right here.
Bland: Well you just pointed me over there! Get your mind right.
Encinia: I said stay over here. Stay over here.
Bland: Ooh I swear on my life, y'all are some pussies. A pussy-ass cop, for a fucking signal you’re gonna take me to jail.
Encinia (to dispatch, or an officer arriving on scene): I got her in control she’s in some handcuffs.
Bland: For a fucking ticket. What a pussy. What a pussy. You’re about to break my fucking wrist!
Encinia: Stop moving.
Bland: I’m standing still! You keep moving me, goddammit.
Encinia: Stay right here. Stand right there.
Bland: Don't touch me. Fucking pussy -- for a traffic ticket (inaudible).
(door slams)
Encinia: Come read right over here. This right here says 'a warning.' You started creating the problems.
Bland: You asked me what was wrong!
Encinia: Do you have anything on your person that's illegal?
Bland: Do I feel like I have anything on me? This a fucking maxi dress.
Encinia: I’m going to remove your glasses.
Bland: This a maxi dress. (Inaudible) Fucking assholes.
Encinia: Come over here.
Bland: You about to break my wrist. Can you stop? You’re about to fucking break my wrist! Stop!!!
Encinia: Stop now! Stop it! If you would stop resisting.
Female officer: Stop resisting ma’am.
Bland: (cries) For a fucking traffic ticket, you are such a pussy. You are such a pussy.
Female officer: No, you are. You should not be fighting.
Encinia: Get on the ground!
Bland: For a traffic signal!
Encinia: You are yanking around, when you pull away from me, you’re resisting arrest.
Bland: Don’t it make you feel real good don’t it? A female for a traffic ticket. Don’t it make you feel good Officer Encinia? You're a real man now. You just slammed me, knocked my head into the ground. I got epilepsy, you motherfucker.
Encinia: Good. Good.
Bland: Good? Good?
Female officer: You should have thought about it before you started resisting.
Bland: Make you feel real good for a female. Y'all strong, y'all real strong.
Encinia: I want you to wait right here.
Bland: I can’t go anywhere with your fucking knee in my back, duh!
Encinia: (to bystander): You need to leave! You need to leave!
(Bland continues screaming, but much of it is inaudible)
Encinia: For a warning you’re going to jail.
Bland: Whatever, whatever.
Encinia: You're going to jail for resisting arrest. Stand up.
Bland: If I could, I can't.
Encinia: OK, roll over.
Bland: I can't even fucking feel my arms.
Encinia: Tuck your knee in, tuck your knee in.
Bland: (Crying): Goddamn. I can't [muffled].
Encinia: Listen, listen. You're going to sit up on your butt.
Bland: You just slammed my head into the ground and you do not even care ...
Encinia: Sit up on your butt.
Female officer: Listen to how he is telling you to get up.
Bland: I can't even hear.
Female officer: Yes you can.
Encinia: Sit up on your butt.
Bland: He slammed my fucking head into the ground.
Encinia: Sit up on your butt.
Bland: What the hell.
Encinia: Now stand up.
Bland: All of this for a traffic signal. I swear to God. All of this for a traffic signal. (To bystander.) Thank you for recording! Thank you! For a traffic signal -- slam me into the ground and everything! Everything! I hope y'all feel good.
Encinia: This officer saw everything.
Female officer: I saw everything.
Bland: And (muffled) No you didn't. You didn't see everything leading up to it ...
Female officer: I'm not talking to you.
Bland: You don't have to.
Encinia: 2547 county. Send me a first-available, for arrest.
Female officer: You okay? You should have Tess check your hand.
Encinia: Yeah, I'm good.
Encinia: She started yanking away and then she kicked me, so I took her straight to the ground.
Female officer: And there you got it right there... I'll search it for you if you want.
Female officer: Yeah.
Second male: I know one thing for sure, it's on video.
Female officer: Yeah.
Second male: You hurt?
Encinia: No.
Encinia (to female officer): Did you see her when we were right here?
Female officer: Yeah, I saw her cause that's where I (inaudible).
Encinia: This is when she pulled with the cuffs.
Paramedic: Your ring got you there?
Encinia: I had the chain, well, not the chain, but
Paramedic: You got the two loops?
Encinia: She didn't kick me too hard but she still kicked me though.
Paramedic: Not through the skin, but you got a nice scratch. I'm a paramedic, that's why I know.
Encinia: I know that, that's why I made you look.
Paramedic: Did she do that?
Encinia: Yeah that's her.
Paramedic: Yeah that's cut through the skin.
Encinia: I wrapped it around her head and got her down.
Encinia (on radio): This is a traffic stop, had a little bit of a incident.
(Silence for several minutes.)
Encinia (apparently to a supervisor): I tried to de-escalate her. It wasn't getting anywhere, at all. I mean I tried to put the Taser away. I tried talking to her and calming her down, and that was not working.
Well, I know, that was when she was in custody, and now I tried to get her detained and get her to just calm down and just calm down. Stop throwing her arms. You know what? She never swung at me, just flailing and stomping around. I said alright that's enough, and that's when I detained her.
There was something going on and she started kicking and kicking.
Yeah, and once I got her in the back of the car, that's why I'm calling you now, because ...
No, we were in the middle of a traffic stop and the traffic stop was not completed. I was just trying to get her out, over to the side and just explain to her what was going on because I couldn't even get her to do what I was telling her. She just started going this is an mf, and you give mf for a ticket and lane change, she just started going.
I just stepped back from the car and was like are you done ma'am? I need to tell you why and what I'm giving you and she just kept on going.
I mean, I don't have serious bodily injury (laughing) but I was kicked.
Assault is if a person commits an offense of intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury to another or you intentionally threaten another with bodily injury.
She's in the back of the car right now. She requested EMS. She said, she said I threw her down intentionally, for nothing. No, I put you down because you kicked me. You were fighting back. I kept telling her to calm down, calm down.
Evading arrest or detention. (Inaudible). Resisting arrest ... She was detained. That's the key and that's why I am calling and asking because she was detained. That's when I was walking her over to the car, just to calm her down and just to (say) stop.
That's when she started kicking. I don't know if it would be resist or if it would be assault. I kinda lean toward assault versus resist because I mean technically, she's under arrest when a traffic stop is initiated, as a lawful stop. You're not free to go. I didn't say you're under arrest, I never said, you know, stop, hands up.
Correct, that did not occur. There was just the assault part.
Like I said, after I got her all her situated and buttoned up as far as getting her in a safe vehicle, under arrest, that's why I'm calling you.
She just moved here, according to her, yesterday, she's from Illinois.
She gave me her driver's license. I came back to the car and started running her stuff. Print it out. Coming to get back to the car to complete and tell her what's she receiving and what to do and so forth.
At that time, she's still very much irritated and so forth. I'm pulling her over for she didn't turn on her signal and so forth and so forth.
She wouldn't even look at me. She's looking straight ahead, just mad.
I'm at the driver's side, I need to get her out of the car and over to the side of the car, you know, on the sidewalk, because I don't want to be in the middle of the road while we're arguing -- or whatever, not arguing, I'm trying to tell her what she's doing but she's arguing with me.
That's the only thing, I mean it too. When I had her down on the ground and the other officer came, I told her stop resisting and that's when I told her you're under arrest. At least I don't think I did.
Yes, she kicked me, she started yanking away and trying to get away. And that's when I grabbed her arm, she's in front of me still. I controlled, I grabbed her by the shoulders and I brought her down into the grass away from the pavement.
Like I said, with something like this, I just call you immediately, after I get to a safe stopping point.
No weapons, she's in handcuffs. You know, I took the lesser of the uhh … I only took enough force as I -- seemed necessary. I even de-escalated once we were on the pavement, you know on the sidewalk. So I allowed time, I'm not saying I just threw her to the ground. I allowed time to de-escalate and so forth. It just kept getting. (laughing) Right, I'm just making that clear.
I got some cuts on my hand, I guess that is an injury, but I don't need medical attention. I got three little circles from I guess the handcuffs when she was twisting away from me.
Over a simple traffic stop. Yeah, I don't get it. I really don't.
Why act like that, I don't know.
Another officer to Bland: Okay ma'am, you're under arrest. You're going to be transported to the Waller County Jail, OK? Alright.
Officer to officer: Alright brother, appreciate it.
Minor revisions and additions have been made to the initially published version of the transcript for accuracy and thoroughness.
Sandra Brown Arrest Documents Redacted
Footage of Texas prison where Sandra Bland died released; dashcam video of arrest expected to be made public
BY TOBIAS SALINGER NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Tuesday, July 21, 2015, 3:25 AMPublished on Jul 21, 2015
Authorities in Texas have released video showing the moments officers discovered Sandra Bland, who was arrested days earlier, dead in her jail cell. Officials say she hanged herself, but friends and family doubt the findings.
The footage from Waller County jail displays a prison deputy peering in at Sandra Bland, 28, the morning of July 13 before hurrying out of the frame to alert the rest of the staff.
Prison officials found the Chicago-area African-American woman slumped in a “semi-standing position” over the cell’s toilet partition with a plastic trash bag wrapped over her head, Waller County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Brian Cantrell told reporters Monday, according to KHOU-TV.
Bland asked to make a phone call at roughly 8 a.m., but prison officials encountered her unresponsive body at 9:08 a.m., the Houston Chronicle reported. Paramedics who rushed to Cell 95 declared her dead less than ten minutes later.
District Attorney Elton Mathis said it is still too soon to tell how Bland died.
“It is very much too early to make any kind of determination that this was a suicide or a murder because the investigations are not complete,” he said at a Monday press conference.
The case will likely go to a grand jury, Mathis said.
“This investigation is still being treated just as it would be in a murder investigation. There are many questions being raised in Waller County, across the country and the world about this case. It needs a thorough review,” he said.
An autopsy by Harris County medical examiners previously classified Bland’s death as a suicide by hanging, a finding that prompted her family to order an independent autopsy.
The newly-released video, which doesn’t show Bland, arrives as the next step in ongoing probes by the sheriff’s office, the county district attorney, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI into Bland’s death and arrest, according to the Chronicle.
On Tuesday, officials expect to release dashcam video of Bland’s arrest three days before her purported suicide death. She was set to start a new job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, when Texas trooper Brian Encinia pulled her over in the town roughly 45 miles northwest of Houston on July 10.
Encinia flagged down her vehicle for not signaling on a lane change and arrested her for allegedly assaulting an officer after she got out of her car, DPS officials have said. But a video shot by a bystander shows several officers standing over her on the ground as she protests their treatment of her.
TEXAS TROOPER WHO ARRESTED SANDRA BLAND PUT ON DESK DUTY
“You just slammed my head into the ground,” Bland says in the footage. “Do you not even care about that? I can't even hear!”
DPS officials have placed Encinia on administrative duty for violating traffic procedures in the stop, and the video will offer a view into why Bland got out of her vehicle during the traffic stop, District Attorney Mathis said.
“Sandra Bland was very combative,” Mathis told reporters. “It was not a model traffic stop ... and it was not a model person that was stopped on a traffic stop. I think the public can make its own determinations as to the behaviors that are seen in the video.”
Friends and supporters of Bland held a vigil in her memory at Prairie View A&M University on Sunday.
SANDRA BLAND'S HANGING IN TEXAS JAIL CELL SPARKS OUTRAGE
Demonstrators who say the footage will contradict the official account of the arrest rallied outside the jail in the town of Hempstead on Monday. Bland’s family asked Rev. Jamal Bryant of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore to come to Texas, he said.
“This was not a case of suicide, but homicide,” Bryant said.
Who was Sandra Bland?
By Ray Sanchez, CNN
Updated 9:17 PM ET, Thu July 23, 2015
(CNN)Sandra Bland, like many people her age, regularly voiced opinions about racism and other topics on social media.
The 28-year-old posted about going natural with her hair, the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and even offered a "shout out" to a girl who handed her a bottle of water after a John Legend concert.
On Facebook, using the #SandySpeaks hashtag, she would monologue about police brutality and the plight of African Americans.
"Being a black person in America is very, very hard," she said in a video posted in April. "At the moment black lives matter. They matter."
Her last tweet, dated June 18, offered prayers for the nine people gunned down by a young white man a day earlier during a Bible study meeting at the historically black Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
But of the snippets of a short life that can be gleaned from social media posts, none was more haunting than an April 8 tweet from Bland saying, "AT FIRST THEY USED A NOOSE, NOW ALL THEY DO IS SHOOT #BlackLivesMatter #SandySpeaks." The tweet links to her Instagram account, where she posted an illustration of a young black man wearing a noose fashioned from the American flag.
On July 13, Bland was found hanging from a noose made from plastic bag in her cell at the Waller County Jail in Texas, where she was incarcerated after allegedly assaulting an officer during a July 10 traffic stop.
Her death is being investigated as a murder, though authorities have said Bland appeared to have hanged herself. The cause of her death has been determined to be hanging; the manner of death, suicide, according to early autopsy results that do not show obvious signs of a violent struggle.
Her family has said the idea that she committed suicide is unthinkable.
Bland was not clinically diagnosed with depression or on any medication and was "ecstatic" at the prospect of starting a new job at her alma mater in Texas, family attorney Cannon Lambert said.
"Right now Sandy is speaking," he said. "She's speaking and saying, 'Find the truth. Find the answers.'"
Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith said Bland told the county jailer during her intake that she had previously tried to kill herself.
Authorities released jail intake forms late Wednesday that appear to show Bland answering "yes" to the following questions: Have you ever been very depressed? Do you feel this way now? Have you had thoughts of killing yourself in the last year? Have you ever attempted suicide?
But, later, on a different sheet, the word "no" appears next to questions about mental illness and attempted suicide. A reason for the apparent discrepancy was not immediately clear.
Separately, an inmate who was held in a cell adjacent to Bland told CNN she did not hear any commotion or screaming that would suggest foul play before Bland was found dead.
The woman said Bland wasn't eating, and was emotional and often crying during her three days in the jail. She was also stressed about missing her first day of work at her new job, said Alexandria Pyle.
"She found out her bond was $5,000, and no one -- she was calling and calling -- and no one was answering, and then after that she just broke down. She was crying and crying," Pyle said.
Bland was taking a new job at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. She had graduated from the historically black college in 2009 and was returning as a student ambassador, according to family members.
"To know Sandy was to love her," said Sharon Cooper, one of Bland's four sisters.
"She was someone who was extremely spontaneous, spunky, outgoing, truly filled with life and joy. When you think through the circumstances that have been shared with us to this point, it is unimaginable and difficult for us to wrap our minds around the Sandy that we knew -- for this to be characteristic of her."
On Tuesday night, family and friends held a memorial service for Bland on the Texas campus where she was supposed to start her new job, CNN affiliate KPRC reported.
Geneva Reed-Veal, Bland's mother, recalled one of her last conversations with her daughter.
"She said, 'Momma, now I know what my purpose is. My purpose is to go back to Texas. My purpose is to stop all social injustice in the South.' "
At Prairie View A&M University, Bland was a member of the Sigma Gamma Rho. The sorority issued a statement asking that -- at the request of Bland's family -- members "refrain from posting social media messages about this matter" and not participate in protests or marches.
"We will respect the wishes of the family and take no action at this time," the statement said.
Unlike Bland's outspokenness on issues of race and justice, her family has taken a more wait-and-see approach to the investigation into her death.
"What they are seeking is an opportunity to first say thank you to the community, but also very much wanting to ask for calm," Lambert said. "We don't want to see Sandy politicized. We don't want to see her life politicized, and we don't want to see her death politicized."
A newly released dashcam video of Texas state Trooper Brian Encinia pulling Bland over for allegedly failing to use her turn signal shows how she reacted the day of her arrest. It started as a normal conversation but grew tense after Encinia asked her to put out her cigarette.
"I am in my car. Why do I have to put out my cigarette?" Bland said.
"You can step on out now," Encinia replied.
Bland refused to get out of her car. The trooper opened her door and tried to pull her out of the vehicle.
In the video, Encinia told Bland she was under arrest. She repeatedly asked why. The trooper does not answer, other than to say, "I am giving you a lawful order."
At one point, after Encina aimed what appeared to be a Taser at Bland, she stepped out of her car. Later, she can be heard saying: "You're a real man now. You just slammed me, knocked my head in the ground."
Cooper said she had seen the whole video.
"I'm infuriated and everybody else should be infuriated," she said.
Bland was a graduate of Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois, where she ran track and played volleyball, The Chicago Tribune reported. She was also a varsity cheerleader and part of the marching band. As a member of the high school's World Languages Honor Society, she was required to have at least an A average, according to the newspaper.
Bland recently worked on the administrative staff of a food service equipment and supplies dealer in Illinois, according to the Tribune. She and her family were members of DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church, where her funeral will be held.
"We have successfully been able to go and get our sister and daughter and bring her home," Lambert said. "The family is preparing for the homegoing celebration."
Cooper said she will miss luring Bland to her house with offers of playtime with her niece "just because I secretly want to see her," according to KPRC. She said a Maroon 5 concert she attended with Bland in February was "the last concert that I will ever go to with her."
"Based on the Sandy I knew, this is unfathomable to me," Cooper said of her sister's possible suicide. "People who knew her, truly knew her, the depth of her, that's unfathomable right now."
Cooper urged supporters to continue to express their solidarity via social media, in the same way Bland spoke out about other injustices.
"Please keep tweeting, keep Facebooking and Instagraming," she said. "Keep utilizing the hashtag #JusticeforSandy ... Keep hashtagging #SayHerName. The minute you forget her name you forget her character."
In her last public words before her death, Bland expressed gratitude to a man who captured her arrest on cellphone video.
"Thank you for recording. Thank you. For a traffic signal. Slammed me into the ground and everything," she is heard saying.
Her family was grateful, too.
"I would advocate that any time that people see a situation that rises to a level of concern, that they video," Lambert said. "Sandy herself said thank you."
What we know about the controversy in Sandra Bland's death
CNN's Dana Ford and Ryan Young contributed to this report.
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