As questions linger about the cause of her death, Sandra Bland’s family and friends gathered Saturday to bid farewell to the 28-year-old woman who moved to Texas this summer to start a fresh chapter in life but ended up dead.
Her funeral took place at her hometown church, DuPage African Methodist Episcopal, in Lisle, Ill., according to ABC 13 Eyewitness News.
Bland died in a jail cell this month after a violent arrest by a Texas state trooper in Waller County after she failed to signal a lane change. The manner of her arrest has stirred outrage on social media and thrust 2016 presidential hopefuls into the center of the #BlackLivesMatter debate. Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton and GOP candidate Donald Trump have both condemned the arrest as “aggressive.”
A minister who was close to Bland told ABC’s Kaitlin McCulley that the funeral service would be a celebration of Bland’s life and of her fearless, outspoken nature. Those attending would sing Bland’s favorite songs and pray for her family, the minister said.
Read more at ABC 13 Eyewitness News.