An Alabama mother-son duo were kicked off a cruise ship after the pair was allegedly caught on video engaging in a vile act with an elderly passenger.
Kelli Lyn Ryan, 49, and her son, Dylan Ryan, 23, of Huntsville, were accused of ‘open-hand’ slapping another passenger said to be over the age of 65 on the MSC Seascape cruise out of Miami, Florida.
Surveillance footage obtained by police showed Kelli slap the elderly victim, whose identity remains unknown, inside the ship’s two-deck theater after an argument broke out around 9:30pm on October 6.
Her son was also seen in the video striking the elderly victim several times, the ship’s deputy chief of security told police, according to Local10.
Dylan was ejected from the nearly 6,000 passenger boat in the day following the altercation for ‘excessive behavior’ as the cruise stopped at its first port in Falmouth, Jamaica, police reports reveal.
Yet, the 23-year-old’s mother was permitted to stay on the ship as it made stops in the Grand Cayman Island, Mexico and MSC Ocean Cay – the cruise ship company’s private island in the Bahamas.
Nearly a week after her son was kicked off the seaside vacation, Kelli was arrested and booked on a charge of battery on a person 65 or older when the Seascape ship finally returned to the Miami port.
As of Monday the 49-year-old was no longer surfacing on the jail’s online database, Local10 reported.
Any details regarding the subject of the alleged altercation have not yet been released.
MSC Cruises have not publicly released a statement about the incident either.
Onlookers have taken to social media in the days after the incident to speculate what may have happened to the 23-year-old who was left in Jamaica, as well as why his mother may have stayed without her son.
‘Wow, how “excessively” violent do you have to act for MSC security actually kick you off the cruise ship in a foreign port?’ Cruise Law News on Facebook posted.
‘Being dumped in Jamaica with no resources is no joke either,’ another user added.
With another replying: ‘Cruising on these big ships is dangerous, on so many levels.’
Passengers getting kicked off cruise ships is considered a relatively rare occurrence, typically happening only when there are severe behavioral issues or serious medical conditions.