An Alabama teen died in her jail cell earlier this week, just over an hour after she was booked into the ;facility. ;Authorities claim the cause of death was suicide by asphyxiation. According to AL.com, officials with the ;Homewood City Jail said ;Kindra Darnell Chapman, who was black, was processed on Tuesday at 6:22 p.m., following an arrest for first-degree robbery. Police say Chapman, 18, stole a ;cell phone from another individual on the street. Chapman was last seen alive at 6:30 p.m on Tuesday, when staff conducted an initial welfare check. At 7:50 p.m., jailers returned to find Chapman unresponsive. Authorities say she hanged herself. She was later pronounced dead at a local…
An Alabama teen died in her jail cell earlier this week, just over an hour after she was booked into the ;facility. ;Authorities claim the cause of death was suicide by asphyxiation.
According to AL.com, officials with the ;Homewood City Jail said ;Kindra Darnell Chapman, who was black, was processed on Tuesday at 6:22 p.m., following an arrest for first-degree robbery. Police say Chapman, 18, stole a ;cell phone from another individual on the street.
Chapman was last seen alive at 6:30 p.m on Tuesday, when staff conducted an initial welfare check. At 7:50 p.m., jailers returned to find Chapman unresponsive. Authorities say she hanged herself. She was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The Homewood police are investigating her death, according to local WSFA. ;Bill Yates, chief deputy coroner for Jefferson County, told The Huffington Post that the results of Chapman’s autopsy are still pending. Calls to the Homewood city jail and police department were not immediately returned.
As The Root notes, Chapman’s death comes amid increasing anger ;about the death of ;28-year-old Sandra Bland, found in her cell ;at the county jail in Hempstead, Texas.
Bland, who was also black, was pulled over for improper signaling on July 10 in ;Waller County, Texas. An altercation ensued, and in a video posted to YouTube, deputies can be seen arresting Bland as she accuses them of slamming her head into the ground. She was charged with ;assaulting an officer and booked into jail. Three days later, Bland was dead, and authorities have claimed she hanged herself.
While reports of apparent jailhouse suicides are not uncommon — authorities say ;a 50-year-old inmate hanged himself in a Washington state jail on Tuesday — the particular circumstances of Bland’s death have been met by many with skepticism. ;In a statement, Bland’s family said they are “confident that she was killed and did not commit suicide.” On Friday, the FBI joined the Texas Rangers ;in an investigation into her death.
The close timing of ;the two alleged suicides has led to a clamor on Twitter, as some believe the deaths may fit into a broader pattern of police violence against people of color, especially black Americans.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Kim Bellware contributed reporting.
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A Black Teen Died This Week In An Alabama Jail Cell, And Authorities Say It Was Suicide
