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 The funeral for Sandra Bland, 28, will be held at DuPage African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Lisle, Illinois, a Chicago suburb,
followed by burial in a nearby cemetery.
Bland was preparing to start a job at her alma mater, Prairie View
A&M University, when she was stopped by a Texas state trooper for
failing to signal a lane change near Prairie View, northwest of
Houston, on July 10.
After the incident escalated into an altercation between her and the
white trooper, Bland was charged with assaulting an officer and
taken to Waller County Jail. Three days later she was found hanging
in a cell with a plastic trash bag around her neck.
Bland's traffic stop and subsequent death have been taken up by
activists who say the case is the latest example of racial bias and
excessive force by U.S. law enforcement.
A medical examiner has ruled Bland's death a suicide, but Waller
County District Attorney Elton Mathis has said more evidence needs
to be gathered and analyzed and the details ultimately examined by a
grand jury.
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Bland's family previously acknowledged a Facebook post in which she
discussed struggling with depression, but has disputed the suicide
ruling.
(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis and Ben Klayman in
Detroit; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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