A Florida grandmother has become the fifth U.S. tourist arrested in Turks and Caicos for possession of ammunition in recent months. She sat down with NBC10 Boston’s Leslie Gaydos for her first interview since her arrest last Monday.
“This is a nightmare I never would imagine in a million. Trillion years. Me? Not me,” Sharitta Shinese Grier told NBC10 Boston.
“I would have never imagined this to happen to me, you know. I'm missing my grandkids, my children. I got a whole life, a loving family back home,” she added.
Grier said she was enjoying her first trip to Turks and Caicos for Mother’s Day weekend with her daughters but it ended badly.
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“The day turned my whole life upside down. Just that quick."
Grier was arrested at the airport on May 13 after security at the Howard Hamilton Airport in Providenciales found two bullets in her luggage.
“It was an honest mistake it fell up under the bottom of the flap in my carry on,” said Grier. “There was no way possible that I could see it because it's a flap in the bottom. They took the bottom of the flap out the bag. That's where the two rounds was in the bottom of that flap. So, it's no way that I would of knew or seen them in there.”
Grier said she works as a store manager and has a gun for protection that she has kept in that bag in the past. She said TSA in Orlando searched her carry-on before she left and confiscated her lotion and body spray but did not catch the ammunition.
“They dropped the ball they failed me because if they would have been it would have never went this far. It would have never went this far,” said Grier.
We reached out to TSA about the missed ammunition. A TSA Spokesperson tells us:
"TSA takes its security mission very seriously. Ammunition is prohibited in carry-on bags and passengers are responsible for the contents of their luggage. TSA acknowledged that four rounds of ammunition were missed at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. TSA is aware of the situation and is gathering information to look into the matter further; however, there is not enough information available to us about the screening date, time and location at Orlando International Airport to make a determination.
TSA is here to protect our transportation security systems, and we encourage passengers to start packing with an empty bag to ensure against unintentionally traveling to a checkpoint with prohibited items. Additionally, when traveling internationally, travelers need to be aware of local laws.
We also strongly recommend that individuals do not bring their firing range bags to the airport when they travel.
For additional information, please contact the State Department and law enforcement officials in Turks."
Grier is charged with one count of possession of ammunition. She said the most trouble she's ever been in with the law is a speeding ticket, and said the other Americans facing charges in TCI and their families have been a godsend. They have even visited her in jail.
“I started praying, you know, I said, God, I know you real. I said, what you got to show me, you got to show me a sign that I'm gonna be all right,” said Grier.
“And before I could wipe my eyes, I hear her. Miss Susan, at the front. I heard her say, oh, I'm here to check on Sharitta. And I'm saying to myself. Who is that? Because I don't know nobody here and don’t nobody know me. Who is it? You know, she came back there when she came back and she had tears in her eyes. And I started crying and she hugged me,” Grier told Gaydos. “I'm going to be OK. We're going to get through this together.”
Grier is now staying with Bryan Hagerich of Pennsylvania, Ryan Watson of Oklahoma and Watson’s mother Susan and stepfather. Hagerich, Watson and Tyler Wenrich of Virginia are all detained on the island facing ammunition charges and a possible minimum 12-year prison sentence under TCI’s strict gun and ammunition laws.
“I would have never imagined this to happen to me, you know. I'm missing my grandkids, my children. I got a whole life, a loving family back home,” said Grier. “I just want all of us, everybody that's all being involved in this situation, I just want all of us to make it home, back home safely. Let us go home to our families.”
Grier is out on bail, her next court hearing is July 5. She has not entered a plea in her case. Wenrich will be in court tomorrow for a plea hearing and oral arguments in his case and will be sentenced by May 28. Hagerich and Watson have pleaded guilty. Hagerich is scheduled to be sentenced May 24. Watson will be back in court next month.
The Turks and Caicos government has not responded to NBC 10 Boston’s request for comment on the most recent cases.
The governors of Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Virginia sent a letter to the governor of Turks and Caicos last week asking her to reconsider the charges against Hagerich, Wenrich and Watson.
The letter reads, in part, “We understand and appreciate the critical importance of upholding the laws and regulations of your territory for the protection of your citizens. We humbly ask that your government - in its wisdom - temper justice with mercy and recognize that these men made mistakes but had no apparent malicious intent.”
The Turks and Caicos Sun paper reported last week, “The Governor’s office said Governor Daniel-Selvaratnam confirmed to Governor Stitt that she cannot comment on or get involved in an ongoing legal case and it is for legal counsel to ensure all relevant information regarding Watson’s case is presented to the court for appropriate consideration.”
The Turks and Caicos attorney general and the director of public prosecutions issued a statement last month saying the islands’ firearm ordinance “requires the Supreme Court to impose a mandatory minimum sentence and fine for certain firearm offenses, except in circumstances where the court finds that there are exceptional circumstances….”
The statement went on to add that there have been five separate cases within a two-year period where the Supreme Court on the islands found exceptional circumstances. Four of the offenders were fined and one was given a custodial sentence below the mandatory minimum.
