A Minnesota mother is facing criminal charges after authorities say she tackled a teenage boy aboard a Carnival cruise ship, believing he was involved in an earlier altercation with her sons.
Paetra Ann Grandsberry, 38, of St. Paul, was arrested and charged with child abuse after the Carnival Conquest docked at PortMiami on Monday, December 22. The alleged incident happened the night before, around 8:30 p.m., while the ship was sailing near the Bahamas, according to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
Ship security had been alerted to a disturbance involving teens fighting on board. When a chief security officer made contact with Grandsberry, she reportedly said she was extremely upset and claimed her two sons had been attacked by several other kids on the cruise.
While speaking with security, Grandsberry allegedly spotted a group of teens running through the ship and believed one of them had struck her sons. According to the report, she suddenly broke away from security, ran after one of the teens, and jumped on top of him, grabbing him by the collar.
The teen later told police he had been walking down a hallway when he saw a group of people running and joined in, thinking they were fleeing from some kind of danger. He said he had no idea why he was being chased.
Deputies wrote that the boy reported Grandsberry ran up behind him, tackled him to the floor, and yanked him up by his collar. He also claimed he heard her encouraging her children to attack him, saying he was one of the kids who had gone after her son.
The teen identified Grandsberry in a photo lineup and gave his account to investigators.
Grandsberry, however, offered a different version of events. She told authorities that she ran toward the teen and accidentally fell on top of him, adding that she called him a profane name during the confrontation.
She is currently being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on a $2,500 bond, according to jail records.
The incident occurred aboard a ship operated by Carnival Cruise Line, though the company has not publicly commented on the arrest.
What kind of a ghetto cruise was this?
Stupidity personified.
What a dumb stupid move, she probably allowed her kids to run wild to terrorize other passengers.