Updated as of 7/13/2024 at 3:00 p.m. ET
After two months of being stuck in Turks and Caicos over an ammunition charge, Sharitta Grier returned home this week.
It had been weeks since she was arrested after loose bullets were found in her belongings at the Howard Hamilton International Airport. Thursday, Grier faced sentencing which could’ve sent her to prison for 12 years. She pleaded guilty to one county of possession of ammunition and had been released on bail, forced to find shelter with a few other stranded Americans facing the same charges.
However, she was handed a $1,500 fine and a 23-week suspended sentence, per ABC. In response to being reunited with her family who met her at the Orlando International Airport upon her return, she told ABC 7 she was happy to get back home but also left travelers with a warning:
“Check their luggage. You know, just be careful. Be very careful, because the other states, all the countries, got different homes. So that’s very serious,” said Grier.
What Happened?
In another unfortunate event of a Black person being internationally detained, Ms. Grier was stranded in Turks and Caicos for over a month due to what she insists an innocent mistake: loose ammunition in her luggage.
Hold on, now. She can explain.
Grier, 45, told NBC News she was on a trip to the islands with her daughter to celebrate Mother’s Day weekend. Her return was set for May 13. However, on her way through the Howard Hamilton International Airport, she told the outlet a plainclothes officer stopped her due to two bullets discovered in the flap of her carry-on bag.
Her daughter was released. However, Grier says she was forced to spend the following few nights in jail, chained to a chair by her leg.
Read more from CBS News:
“I never experienced nothing like that,” Grier, of Orlando, said in an interview on “CBS Mornings.” “It was just so unreal to me. And all they kept saying was like, ‘This is a serious, um, charge, 12 years mandatory to prison.’ 12 years?”
Possessing a gun or ammunition is illegal in Turks and Caicos, but was previously punishable by a fine. In February, a court order required a mandatory prison sentence, even for tourists, in addition to paying a fine.
Grier insists it was an honest mistake, after believing she thoroughly cleaned out the bag before packing. Now, she is one of the five Americans facing the same 12-year punishment after ammunition was found in their bags.
Politicians have gotten involved, petitioning the foreign government to release the detainees.
“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 intents,” read a statement from the governors of several states.
Grier was released on bail and was previously in the care of Bryan Hagerich and Ryan Watson, two more Americans who were also detained for the same ammunition offenses and awaiting their pending court hearings.