Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
A Key Largo sprayed two anglers with water and got into a fight with one of them.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is so sad. You’ve got two young men, a 21 year old and his 13 year old younger brother, just trying to enjoy a day fishing out there by the docks, and this 36 year old male from Key Largo, I guess he didn’t like the fishing by the docks. I’m not sure if he was a charter boat captain or a mate, but grabbed a hose and just started spraying these guys down with the hose, hosing them down, yelling and screaming. At some point in time, got physical with the 21 year old brother, took the fishing rod, threw the fishing rod in the water, and started this altercation. So it’s tough enough that this young man’s having to fight him, an older male, but to see a 13 year old boy see his brother getting beat up, it’s just heartbreaking. This is supposed to be a good time. Two brothers bonding, but we were able to get there, break everybody up, render aid and eventually arrest the 36 year old male for battery charges. Just sad to see. We had video evidence, what took place on the docks, as well as witness statements. So pretty clear what took place.”
An individual was making threats to kill someone on Facebook messenger.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It is a 25 year old male from Key West who’s our suspect. Victim in this case, is a 58 year old male who was subjected to threats, Facebook Messenger, voice messages multiple times, multiple threats to kill, alluding to the fact of having guns, weapons, yes, alluding to the fact of gang affiliation, as well, alluding to the fact that he was willing to do prison time if he had to and wanted this male for some reason, to move out of the state of Florida. But really, really violent threats to kill, and we were contacted. We investigated, we looked into it, we saw some of the Facebook messages, and we got probable cause to get a warrant for his arrest for these violent charges, electronic threats to kill or do bodily harm. You cannot get on a computer or other electronic devices and make threats to kill or do bodily harm to somebody. That is a violation of law. Even if you don’t carry the act out, you still will be arrested. We can’t tolerate this garbage, and we’re not going to, so we did arrest him, going to hold him accountable. He’s sitting in jail for Christmas, and I don’t think that the victim’s going to be moving out of state, but we’re going to do our part to ensure his safety, so he doesn’t have to move. We’re just going to send a message, like we always say, for every action there’s a reaction. Well, the reaction is, he’s sitting in jail, and we’re going to deter him from making threats to other people. This is a bully behind the keyboard, for the most part, but we still have to take every threat serious, because you never know.”
A man was cited for illegal undersized lobster recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We did cite a 72 year old male out of Flagler Beach for this event, harvesting these lobsters undersized, and this at mile marker 75 is where he was at. We saw the group snorkeling with what appeared to be lobstering. Inspecting their catch, we did find undersized lobster, four of which the 72 year old male, accepted responsibility for the person harvested those lobsters. So we did give him a notice to appear and hold him accountable. Our effort to continue to try to protect our resources, which are so fragile and are ever under attack.”
An intoxicated, 28 year old Key West man arrested last week for disturbing the peace and assault sheriff’s office deputies.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Alcohol is interesting thing. Some people can hold their alcohol. Some people cannot. The ones that cannot make poor decisions, based on when drinking, doing stupid stuff. This was an individual who came on the property, a 28 year old male who resides in Key West, for some reason, was in Key Largo, at a really nice RV park on the ocean, right in the bay. It’s a beautiful park. And the residents there started hearing a guy yelling and screaming, carry on, beating stuff up. And we got called. We showed up to find this individual very violent, very agitated. We tried to deescalate, we tried to talk, get compliance, to get him off the property, and he just escalated any efforts to de-escalate, which turned ultimately into a battering a police officer, touching and or striking an officer, even if there’s no bodily injury, is a felony in itself. It’s enhanced penalties for battering a police officer. So these officers in uniform and in the capacity of their duties were battered, assault charges. They were dealing with this intoxicated male who got multiple charges for alcohol, so he went to jail on multiple charges. And it just goes to show again, we always say how difficult and challenging this job can be. We got the disturbance call. Next thing you know, you’re being battered by a drunk. So it’s a difficult, challenging job to be a law enforcement officer each and every day, I appreciate the men and women who work in law enforcement, not only in my agency, but state, local, federal, because we’ve got to put up with a lot of garbage, a lot of BS, but that’s our jobs. We ask for it but it is still dangerous and challenging at best.”
The Crane family has been helping the county for many years.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “What a great family. I knew I was giving the 25 year award from Florida Sheriff’s Association to Jim and obviously, knowing his son works for me, I called his son said, hey, I want you to come over. I want you to be in the picture. We’re going to take a picture together. We’ll send it back to Florida Sheriff’s Association. The picture of all three of us will come out in the sheriff’s magazine. So I thought it was good to bring that unity of family together. But yes, John Crane is a veteran, Army Veteran, but is also a captain at the main jail. His wife, Director of veterans services and social services for Monroe County. And Jim, his father, who got the award, also works for Monroe County and public works, been there for years. So the entire family is working for the county, doing really important services, but Jim is a great friend to Florida Sheriff’s Association, to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, to me and his community, always volunteering, giving back, the whole family anytime we need help with anything, any one of these three individuals is Johnny on the Spot and is can do. I can’t say enough about the Crane family and how awesome they are as a family, how much they do for this community and how much I appreciate each and every one of them.”
Remember to be careful over New Year’s.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “There’s so many alternate ways to go out and have a good time, but not put yourself or others in harm’s way and risk. Designated drivers, Ubers, family, friends, taxi cabs. We always just say, go out and have a good time. There’ll be a lot of people drinking and celebrating the parties with the family and friends. A lot of people will be excessive drinking. Unfortunately, still it doesn’t mean you have to get behind the wheel and endanger your life or somebody else’s, or endanger your freedom. You get in a crash and kill somebody, you’re going to jail for years for a DUI manslaughter. So again, we don’t want to break the party up. We’re just saying, have a plan. Think ahead if you’re going to drink, and just figure out how you’re going to safely get to and from and protect everyone else. So it’s really, really important to keep that messaging. Traffic, there will be a lot of people traveling, one of busier times of the year, and we expect right after Christmas, we’re going to get into some really, really heavy traffic. A lot of our snowbirds will be coming down. A lot of people trying to get away from the cold up north take a little vacation. So we should see soon after Christmas, our highways are going to explode in traffic, and we’re going to have twice the volume of traffic we probably have now. We’re going to see those key choke points become really difficult to get around, whether it be Islamorada, which is difficult on a good day, Big Pine, the traffic light area is always difficult, challenging, a lot of those points which are problematic for us, 18 mile stretch, within a couple of weeks, we’re going to be experiencing some heavy, heavy traffic. So enjoy the last bit of moderate traffic while you can.”
Michael Stapleford of Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM said, “I certainly wish you the merriest of Christmases and holiday seasons to you and your family. And again, I can’t thank you enough for your service to our community these so many years.”
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Thank you, Michael for the opportunity and your friendship and partnership with MCSO and myself and I want to thank our listeners for supporting us each and every year, wishing you and your family and our listeners family as well a happy, safe, Merry Christmas.”