Grand jury charges two with making terrorist threats
A Russellville woman and a Red Bay man arrested almost exactly one month apart for making threatening statements against other people were both indicted by a recent grand jury.
Sharon Lee Ramsey, 44, 2008 Liberty Avenue in Russellville, and James Dale Gravitt, 36, 1961 Franklin 16 in Vina, were both indicted by the March session of the Franklin County grand jury for making a terrorist threat.
The indictments stem from separate incidents that occurred within a near one-month time span.
Ramsey’s charge came after she was accused of making threats to a teacher at Russellville Elementary School on Dec. 16.
According to authorities, Ramsey’s special needs child was scheduled to go on a class field trip the day before but, because of inclement weather, the trip was cancelled.
When Ramsey took her child to school the next morning, she was informed that her daughter’s class trip had not been rescheduled, which made her upset.
Ramsey reportedly asserted that the special needs children never got to take field trips and said that it was unfair. When the teacher tried to reason with her, she began to make threats.
Authorities said that Ramsey is accused of saying, “Maybe I’ll just come and do what they did down in Florida, but I don’t miss.” She was then accused of making hand gestures that looked like a gun to show she was talking about shooting someone.
The incident Ramsey was referencing was a shooting at the Panama City School Board meeting on Dec. 14 when the husband of a teacher who had been laid off came into the meeting and fired shots at school board members. No one was harmed except for the gunman who shot himself after the incident.
Gravitt’s charge stemmed from an incident that took place on Jan. 17 at the Sunshine Homes factory in Red Bay where Gravitt was employed at the time.
According to Red Bay Police Chief Janna Jackson, officers with the Red Bay Police Department were dispatched to Sunshine Homes due to an employee making threats towards his employers.
When authorities arrived on the scene, they were informed by Sunshine Homes personnel that Gravitt had made threats to kill his supervisors after quitting his job.
“We were told that Gravitt had quit his job, tore up his time card, and that he was going to leave and get a gun so he could ‘shoot all the people in white shirts,’ referring to his supervisors,” Jackson said. “We had to take the threats seriously, so officers went and located Gravitt at his residence and took him into custody.”
After Ramsey’s arrest, Hargett agreed that something had to be done when people make threats against others.
“In light of events that have happened at schools all over the country, we have to take things like this seriously,” Russellville Police Chief Chris Hargett said.
“People need to think about what they’re saying when they’re upset, especially in a school or government setting.
“Most of the time people don’t mean it when they make threats like that, but you never know. That’s why we will continue to take every threat of this nature seriously.”
Both Ramsey and Gravitt are out on bond.
