While shot baby son laid to rest – VENEZUELAN MOM TAKEN BY COPS

EVEN as her son was being laid to rest following a funeral which she was unable to attend, Venezuelan migrant Darielvis Sarabia was escorted by police from the Sangre Grande Hospital on Friday afternoon and taken to the nearby police station where she was kept for several hours.

Sarabia was warded ever since being shot in the shoulder on Saturday February 5 while holding her one-year-old son Yaelvis as they were in a boat which was intercepted by the Coast Guard. Baby Yaelvis, who was shot in the head, died in his mother's arms.

While the boy's relatives were at his funeral at the Church of the Nazarene in Arima at 1 pm, Sarabia was frantically calling her husband Yermi Santoyo from a cellphone she had borrowed, to tell him that police had just arrived at the hospital.

Santoyo left the church and put his phone's external speakers on so that this reporter could listen in as Sarabia spoke.

Speaking in Spanish, she told Santoyo: "Several officers came for me. They got me out of the hospital, but I don't know where."

Santoyo was able to speak later with a female officer who told him that Sarabia had gotten discharged from hospital and was being taken to the Sangre Grande police station and then to be handed over to the Immigration department. Santoyo said the officer did not say why his wife was being handed over to Immigration.

He said that he and his daughter Danna received a provisional permit allowing them to stay in TT while investigations into the shooting death of their son Yaelvis was continuing. He said that he had been assured that Sarabia would receive the same permit once she was discharged from hospital.

After Yaelvis's funeral, relatives hurried to the Sangre Grande police station.

"My wife had surgery only on Thursday. The doctors put a metal plate in her left shoulder to stabilise it from the fracture she suffered from the bullet. It is inhumane to be taken from hospital less than 24 hours after surgery and to a police station," Santoyo said.

He was able to enter the station and spoke for several minutes with officers.

After leaving the charge-room, Santoyo said, "They only told me my wife is not being detained. They are waiting for the investigation (sic) officers from the San Fernando police station. Supposedly they would come to interview her on the case (Yaelvis's shooting) but we don't understand why they have to be from San Fernando and outside from the hospital," he said.

He complained that while she was at the police station Sarabia started to vomit and was in a lot of pain. Up to press time, her relatives were still at the police station waiting for an ambulance to take Sarabia back to the hospital for treatment.

When Newsday contacted the Sangre Grande police station, an officer confirmed that Sarabia was at the station and that police officers from San Fernando who were detailed to investigate the shooting death of Yaelvis were en route to the Sangre Grande police station to record a witness statement from Sarabia.

Up to press time, it was not known if the San Fernando officers did visit the station or if they spoke with Sarabia.

The Coast Guard has said that when officers intercepted the boat which contained about 35 people, repeated efforts were made to have that boat ram the Coast Guard officers' vessel. The Coast Guard maintained that its officers fired in self defence and fired at the migrants' boat engines to stall that vessel.

Migrants who were subsequently kept at a detention centre in Chaguaramas told lawyers retained to protect their legal interests that the Coast Guard gave no warning and fired two flares one of which landed in the boat. They claimed the Coast Guard officers then opened fire. The migrants have since been deported to Venezuela.