Update: Family of Kindra Chapman: 'Her Death Was a Suicide'
UPDATE 7/23/2015 5:38 P.M.:
The family of Kindra Chapman has spoken out. In a statement released to AL.com, they confirmed that the 18-year-old's death in a Homewood, Alabama, jail cell last week was self-inflicted. "We want the world to know what a wonderful soul she was," her family wrote.
"At the same time, we want the world to know that her death was a suicide. We have hired lawyers to investigate how this could have happened while she was in police custody," the statement continued.
District Attorney Brandon Falls said there was no "evidence of any criminal wrongdoing in the arrest and detention of Kindra Chapman, and I believe that her death is the result of a suicide."
Moreover, Fall's office said that there was probable cause for her arrest. They add that a video shows Chapman alone in a cell, climbing on top of a water cooler and tying a bed sheet to a rail. She then hanged herself. Surveillance shows that she was not injured during her arrest or while she was booked in jail, according to officials.
PREVIOUS 7/23/2015 10:15 A.M:
Another Black family in America is demanding answers from authorities in the mysterious death of their loved one in police custody. Kindra Chapman, 18, was found unresponsive in a jail cell in Homewood, Alabama, on Tuesday, July 14. Police say Chapman hanged herself, a similar, disturbing claim made about the recent death of Sandra Bland in a jail cell last week in Texas.
The woman's family say they believe the police were involved in her death. Currently, the Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls is ready to release preliminary details in the case, but is awaiting a response from her family and the attorneys before making the information public.
A group of six people protesting Chapman's death were arrested nearby the Homewood jail facility, after blocking traffic on a highway. Moreover a Change.org petition is calling for the Homewood Police Department to disclose "full accounting of all of the interactions between Kindra Darnell Chapman" and the officers she encountered the day of her death.
Chapman died only hours after she was arrested and charged with first-degree robbery. She was booked at 6:22 p.m. and was last seen alive at 6:30 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., she was found unresponsive. Police say she used a bed sheet to hang herself, according to Al.com. She was transported to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead at 7:50 p.m.
Kathy Brady, Chapman's mother, said that police contacted her about her daughter's death at 9 p.m.
Investigators are reviewing police reports from her arrest, reports from officers working when Chapman was found unresponsive and the investigative detective's report. They are also looking at footage from surveillance cameras inside the Homewood jail. There is also a witness statement from an individual who was also in custody at the same time as Chapman.
Police say Chapman had previously been arrested several months ago after she was seen checking car doors in an apartment parking lot, kicking the back window of a police car and was found to possess marijuana, AL.com reports.
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(Photo: Kindra Chapman via Facebook)
