Director: Police doctored dashcam video

Dashboard video footage released involving the traffic stop in Texas of a woman later found dead in her jail cell appears to have been doctored, an award-winning Hollywood director said.

The video showed how the incident quickly escalated into an altercation between the woman and a state trooper.

Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman from the Chicago area, was pulled over on July 10 in Prairie View, Texas, for failing to signal a lane change.

The 52-minute video, released by the Texas Department of Public Safety, shows the trooper, Brian Encinia, approaching the car and asking if Bland is irritated. Bland replies that she is upset about being stopped for such a minor issue.

After running a check of Bland’s driving history, the trooper returns and asks her to put out her cigarette, which she refuses to do, saying she has the right to smoke in her own vehicle.

At that point, the video shows Encinia demanding she leave the vehicle and then trying to pull her out. He then points a Taser and shouts: “I will light you up.”

Bland asks at least 10 times about why she is being arrested and for what offence before Encinia replies she is resisting arrest.

She is heard telling the trooper: “I can’t wait until we go to court.”

Bland, who was taken into custody and later charged with assaulting an officer, was found hanging in her jail cell three days later.

Her death was ruled a suicide. Her family, while acknowledging that Bland previously posted a video blog saying she was struggling with depression, has dismissed the idea she was suicidal. Family members said she was excited about starting a job at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University.

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said he would investigate her death as a homicide. The state trooper, Encinia, has been put on desk duty for violating protocol in the arrest.

After watching the footage, Ava DuVernay, a US director whose film Selma was nominated for an Oscar, questioned whether the video had been heavily edited. “I edit footage for a living. But anyone can see that this official video has been cut. Read/watch. Why?” the filmmaker tweeted.

“Glitches. Motion sensors. Clouds. Reasons from those who say #SandraBland vid is pristine. Doesn’t explain loops + audio cuts. But, um, ok.”

US journalist Ben Norton also claimed police added jump cuts and sound loops to the dash camera footage.

Demonstrators have protested outside the jail where Bland died and her case has been taken up by activists who say it is the latest example of racial bias and excessive force by US law enforcement.