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Sandra Annette Bland (February 7, 1987 – July 13, 2015) was a civil rights activist in Chicago, although she was from Illinois and had held various jobs. She had a degree in agriculture. She was apprehended during a traffic stop by an officer known to stop people for minor infractions in the hope of finding evidence to charge those he stopped. Sandra’s infraction was failure to signal during a lane change, although she had responded to the officer tailgating her at high speed and believed he wished to overtake her to attend to an emergency. Sandra filmed her arrest and later body cam footage found her to be non-aggressive, but challenging the reason she was stopped. She was arrested after being threatened with a taser and a bystander was asked to leave the area after the arresting officer was heard saying ‘Good’ following Sandra informing them she was epileptic. She was arrested for allegedly ‘kicking’ an officer and for being ‘argumentative and uncooperative’. Sandra later told her sister the officer had forced their knee into her back and had slammed her head into the ground.

She was placed in a cell on her own due to an apparent high risk to others. Three days after her arrest, Sandra was found hanged in her cell after apparently committing suicide by hanging herself with a plastic bag. Her loved ones disputed this, saying Sandra had no reason to kill herself, and that the platform she hanged herself from was shorter than she was. It is believed Sandra was already dead in her published mug shot.