Journal and wire reports
PROVIDENCE -- A Brazilian man who died this week after being picked up on a deportation warrant wasn't given the epilepsy medicine his sister brought to the police station, the sister said.
Federal authorities are investigating the death of Edimar Alves Dearaujo, 34, a Brazilian national of Milford, Mass., who died Tuesday at Rhode Island Hospital 78 minutes after being taken into custody in Woonsocket by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, according to Paula Grenier, an ICE spokeswoman in Boston.
Grenier said Araujo had been in federal custody for a little over an hour when he showed "physical signs of distress" and was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where he died.
The state medical examiner's office said it was awaiting the results of an autopsy today.
Araujo's sister, Irene Araujo, told The Boston Globe she got a call from her brother and immediately drove to the Woonsocket police station to give the police his anti-seizure medication, Gardenal.
"I told them he needed the medication, and I told them he had seizure problems," she said. "He can't skip a day without medication."
Irene Araujo said the police refused to take it, saying her brother could tell them if he needed medication. She said a friend tried again to bring the medication to him Wednesday morning, but learned her brother had died.
Woonsocket's police chief did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment today. Grenier declined to comment on Irene Araujo's claims that she told authorities of her brother's condition and need for medication.
Grenier gave this chain of events:
Sometime before 3 p.m. on Tuesdsay, Woonsocket police stopped Dearaujo &ldquosomewhere in the city, on a car stop.&rdquo After discovering that Dearaujo had an outstanding warrant of deportation from 2002, officers contacted immigration authorities at Providence ICE headquarters.
At 3 p.m., immigration agents took Dearaujo into custody at the Woonsocket Police Department and brought him to the ICE facility on Dyer Street in Providence.
During processing, Araujo began showing "physical signs of distress." ICE officers immediately called 9-1-1.
ICE officers attended to Araujo's care while waiting for emergency rescue personnel to arrive.
Dearaujo was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 4:18 p.m.
Said Grenier, "That is the extent of releasable information."
Grenier said state and federal authorities would investigate, but state police and the attorney general's office said they were not involved.
Edmar Alves Araujo lived in the United States for about five years and worked at a gas station and as a painter, his sister said. He has a 13-year-old son who lives in Italy.
According to a recent New York Times story, 62 immigrants have died in ICE administrative custody since 2004. The Times article stated that "no government body is charged with accounting for deaths in immigration detention," and noted that a Senate amendment to the proposed immigration bill that was defeated this summer called for establishment of an office of detention oversight within the Department of Homeland Security.
-- With reports from the Associated Press and Journal staff writer Karen Ziner
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