Posted on 05/19/2011 5:00:25 AM PDT by from occupied ga
A vacation in Jamaica for an Athens pastor and his wife ends in a nightmare in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
26-year-old Steven Carter, a youth pastor at The Church at Southside in Athens, was arrested by security officials at the Jamaica Airport when they found a .22-caliber bullet stuck in the seams of the bag.
"They don't know how it got there,” said Church Pastor Jeff Williams. “Steven doesn't own a gun, but evidently it has been there a while."
Carter might be able to see a judge Thursday morning after spending the night in an open jail cell in Montego Bay with several hundred other men.
News/Talk WSB’s Richard Sangster reported Thursday morning that Carter’s father was headed to Jamaica to try and get his son out of jail.
Carter’s lawyer says the charge could go one of two ways. If he is charged with illegal ammunition, the pastor’s penalty will be a small fine. But if he is hit with a terrorism charge, Carter could get seven years in jail.
“They said it was the equivalent of bring a bomb on a plane,” Williams told Channel 2 Action News.
Williams said he'd contacted members of Congress, including Georgia Rep. Paul Broun, their representative in Athens. Broun's office had no immediate comment when the AJC called Wednesday. Williams also said Steven’s wife Erin had spoken with Sen. Johnny Isakson.
"We have been contacted by the family and are working to try to help our constituent," Isakson spokeswoman Lauren Culbertson said.
Williams said Carter has owned the bag most of his life but had not used it in about five years. He said he was told that the last time Carter fired a gun was when he was about 10 and was squirrel hunting.
“He’s a great kid and I’m terribly afraid for his safety,” said Williams. “He’s 26 years old, newly married, baby at home and they just want to get home.”
Well, I’ve just marked Jamaica off my list of vacation destination options...
I couldn’t guarantee that any suitcase, gym bag, backpack or any other type of bag in my house didn’t have a spare round or two stuck somewhere in it. lol
I hope word of this gets out and it hurts Jamaica’s tourist industry.
Where ever there is diversity there is also hatred for Whitey!
“Celebrate the gorgeous mosaic!”
- Mayor David Dinkins, New York City, 1990
But I suspect you knew that
‘Loaded round’ says it all....shell can mean an empty shell or a loaded shell..
local gun stores around here dont get it either...I go to buy 'bullets' for reloading and they look cockeyed at me...and will say something like...'...you mean the heads,right?'...generally not because they dont know the correct terms but because they realise there are a lot of shooters out there who cant get the jargon straight either....
The people who this will deter probably wonldn't go there anyway. (like me). If I want beach I'll go to Florida. Lots cheaper, lots nicer, and LOTS safer. ALTHOUGH there is occasion for awkwardness. Not knowing the local scene, my wife and I got off the Lauderdale water taxi at the Sebastian road beach. After a bit we began to notice that although there were many couples there were no women. We moved a couple of blocks. south to a different section of the beach.
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