WALLER COUNTY, Texas – Authorities in Texas said Wednesday that a technical glitch, not intentional editing, caused the irregularities in a 52-minute dashcam video of the traffic stop and arrest of Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in her jail cell three days later, NBC News reports.
Tom Vinger, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, blamed a "technical issue during posting." He said that the department was working to correct the video.
A new version of the video was posted to YouTube on Wednesday afternoon. It's about three minutes shorter.
DPS posted the original video to YouTube on Tuesday night. At several points, the video repeats itself or is cut, while the audio continues uninterrupted.
The video shows an escalating confrontation between Bland and Brian Encinia, a state trooper, on July 10 after he stopped her for failing to signal a lane change. At one point, the trooper draws his Taser and shouts: "Get out of the car! I will light you up!"
None of the irregularities in the video appear in the 14 minutes that show Bland's arrest and the confrontation.
But in one section of the video, a tow truck driver walks toward the trooper's cruiser, then out of the frame, then reappears and completes the same walk seconds later. In another section, a white car appears, disappears from the frame, then appears again.
Steven McCraw, the director of the Department of Public Safety, told reporters Tuesday that the trooper did not comply with procedure, including by failing to let Bland know what action he planned to take and by failing to be courteous and professional.
Shelby Moore, a former Baltimore prosecutor who teaches torte law at South Texas College of Law, said she did not believe Trooper Brian Encinia made a lawful request when he ordered Bland out of her car.
"He said 'you're under arrest,' but I never heard a reason for being under arrest. I would have liked to know why," Moore said.
Moore said she was unable to reference a law that would suggest Encinia could detain Bland or remove her from her vehicle after she refused the trooper's request to extinguish her cigarette.
"I think he was wrong in the way he handled it," Moore said. "They keep saying it's unprofessional. It's beyond unprofessional. It really lets this woman be put in jail when I don't see a reason for why she was there."
The trooper has been placed on administrative leave.
On the morning of July 13, Bland was found hanging from a partition in her jail cell, a plastic trash can liner around her neck. Police have said she killed herself.
The Waller County sheriff said Bland had tried to commit suicide before, according to the Associated Press. Sources confirmed to KPRC 2 News that Bland told Waller County jailers that she had tried to kill herself in 2014. We're told the jailers did not feel she was a threat or depressed after observing her and did not put her on suicide watch.
Her death has raised suspicions among her family and become the latest rallying cry among activists outraged by the treatment of blacks by law enforcement.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement Wednesday that read, "Our hearts and prayers remain with the Bland family for their tragic loss. The family deserves answers. The Texas Rangers, working in coordination with the FBI, will conduct a full and thorough investigation that will deliver those answers and work toward the ultimate goal of ensuring justice in this case."
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