‘They Are Lying, There Was No Gun,’ Kaia Sealy shouts from hospital bed after St Augustine police shooting 

Trinidad and Tobago: The mother of Kaia Sealy said that her daughter repeatedly screamed ‘They are lying, there was no gun’ while she was being treated at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences hours after police officials shot her and her husband 31 year old Joshua Samaroo, killing him on the spot on January 20 during a police operation in St Augustine.

While speaking to a local media channel alongside her attorney Fayola Sandy, the mother Avanel Hendricks said that a nurse told her secretly that the police officials were claiming that Sealy shot at officers however her injured daughter was loudly heard denying this statement from her hospital bed.

A police officer was stationed outside the room and asked for my identity, after which the doctor confirmed that I was her parent. The doctor informed me that there were no signs of spinal injuries and that they were still uncertain about the cause of the paralysis. As I was leaving, a nurse discreetly pulled me aside in the emergency area and said, ‘Please don’t tell anyone, but they are trying to claim that your daughter fired at them. However, your daughter keeps shouting, “They are lying. They are lying. There was no gun.

Hendricks said that she was repeatedly blocked by police officers from meeting her daughter while she was admitted at the hospital and is under guard despite not being charged. She was only allowed to meet after she hired an attorney, and he intervened on her behalf.

“I don’t have faith in the system,” Hendricks said. “I feel like you are criminals with legal guns.”

Notably, Kaia Sealy was shot once in her arm and twice in the upper back near her spine which led her to suffer a collapsed lung, several spinal fractures and broken ribs along with injuries that her mother said were not identified during her preliminary scans at Mt Hope hospital in Trinidad.

Even after she was discharged from the hospital, she was still escorted home by police officers with no explanation as to whether she was a suspect or was under arrest. Hendricks said that even senior police officers visited her daughter’s bedside unannounced.

The shooting incident which was captured on CCTV footage has been circulated across social media widely, sparking national outrage. Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro in a statement has also declined to suspect the officers involved which saying that they were offered counselling. His handling of this matter has further drawn criticism from civil society groups and law association.

Meanwhile, the attorney has confirmed that Sealy has not been charged and continues to cooperate with investigators.