Texas State Trooper Brian T. Encinia was indicted Wednesday on a perjury charge in the death of Sandra Bland. Here are all the quick facts your need to know:
A grand jury decided to indict the arresting officer of Sandra Bland, State Trooper Brian T. Encinia after making false statements in the affidavit.
Trooper Encinia pulled over Bland on July 10, 2015 for failure to signal while changing lanes outside of her alma mater Prairie A&M University, where she’d just interviewed and accepted a job.
After issuing Bland a traffic ticket, Encinia questioned Bland about her attitude and asked her to put out her lit cigarette. When she refused, Encinia told her to exit the vehicle or he was going to “light her up” with his stun gun:
The rest of the confrontation happened out of the dashcam’s view but Bland can be heard screaming as Encinia knocked her head to the ground and put his knee in her back. A bystander caught the rest of Bland’s arrest on his cell phone:
Encinia claimed Bland swung her elbows at him and kicked him in his right shin. He arrested her for assault on a public servant. She was found dead three days later while in custody at Waller County jail with a plastic garbage bag wrapped around her throat. County jail officers say her death was a “suicide”.
In the affidavit, Encinia claims he removed Bland from her car to “conduct a safer traffic investigation”. The grand jury found that statement to be false because… See NEXT page