Nearly two weeks after Sandra Bland was arrested during a traffic stop and subsequently died while in police custody, another new development has been made public. In a recording obtained by an ABC affiliate and confirmed by a local judge, the 28-year-old Bland called a friend from prison hours after her first court appearance on July 11—the day after her arrest.
“I’m still just at a loss for words honestly at this whole process,” the 28-year-old Bland said in the 22-second voicemail. “How did switching lanes with no signal turn into all of this, I don’t even know.”
Texas State trooper Brian Encinia pulled Bland over for failing to switch lanes without signaling on July 10. The encounter quickly escalated when Bland refused to extinguish her cigarette and the officer threatened to forcibly remove her from her car, later saying he would use his taser if she did not comply. Three days after the arrest, Bland was found dead in her jail cell from an apparent suicide. Despite the initial assessment, a Texas district attorney said that the death will be treated “as it would be in a murder investigation.”
Bland’s 22-second voicemail is one of three calls she made following her court appearance, in which her bail for allegedly assaulting Encinia during the stop was set at $5,000. The other two were placed to her sister and a bail bondsman.
[ABC News]
Read next: Everything We Know About the Sandra Bland Case
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