Sandra Bland drove to Texas for a new job, so how did she end up dead in a jail cell?

Family and friends want to know how 28-year-old Sandra Bland, who was on a road trip to a new job, ended up dead in a Texas jail cell. Officials say Bland died by suicide, but her family is not buying that theory.

Sandra Bland’s job

Bland, who was outspoken about racism and police brutality, had just gotten a new job at her alma mater, Texas Prairie View A&M, and was on her way from the Chicago suburb of Naperville to her new home near Houston when she was stopped by police for failing to signal during a lane change on Friday afternoon, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The simple traffic stop escalated, according to video of the arrest that has emerged on YouTube.

Traffic stop

In the video, which does not show the beginning of the encounter, shows officers top of Bland as she cries out that they had slammed her head into the ground and were being too rough with her. An officer is seen telling the person shooting the video to leave.

“You just slammed my head into the ground,” Bland yells as she is being arrested. “Do you not even care about that? I can’t even hear!”

She was arrested for assaulting a police officer, according to news reports. Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith claimed she “had been combative on the side of the road.”

On Monday morning, jailers found her dead, and officials attributed it to self-inflicted asphyxiation.

“CPR was immediately started and Waller County EMS notified. She was pronounced deceased a short time later. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation, the Texas Rangers were immediately notified to conduct the death investigation,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

The Chicago Tribune reports her death was ruled a suicide through hanging.

Disagreements

Her family and friends disagree on what happened while Bland was in custody and are demanding more answers. Bland’s friends have told reporters that things were going well for her and that she wouldn’t harm herself, but that’s not the only reason the case has drawn national attention. The police account hasn’t been widely accepted, in part because it comes in the wake of a string of high-profile cases of African American deaths at the hands of police officers — cases in which it took video footage to draw attention to what was later deemed misconduct to help prove that the officers’ accounts were dishonest.

Her family has retained a lawyer and will conduct its own investigation of her death, saying they are “confident” she was killed. The Texas Rangers have been called in and will also investigate the death.