Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
An armed robbery of a ride share driver happened recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This is unusual. We just don’t see these type of crimes very often. But yes, this was an Uber rideshare driver called to Hog Heaven to pick up two young adults and was going to give him a ride back to Venetian Shores, which is a nice neighborhood, when they arrived at the residence in question, where they’re being dropped off, one of the passengers, a 22 year old male from that area, apparently pulled out a semi automatic handgun, racked a round in it, put it to the driver’s head, and demanded the money. The driver had no money, because we know ride shares are pretty much done by credit cards and then demanded his watch. He turned over his watch, which is a 300 something dollar watch, and then the two passengers got out of the car. The Uber rideshare driver left the area, saw immediately a sheriff’s deputy and flagged him down, notified him. We brought in resources. We went to the residence. We identified the two individuals at the residence. They denied any wrongdoing. We did an investigation, called out detectives, we went back to Hog Heaven. We found surveillance video showing the two individuals getting into the Uber rideshare car and leaving Hog Heaven in the car with the Uber. We verified that. We did a photo lineup with the Uber driver who identified the person with the gun as the individual. So he identified the person with the gun. We continued to investigate and determined we believe the gun and watch was thrown in the canal close by. We brought in sheriff’s office police divers. We put our dive team in the water. We did locate the gun, not the watch, but we located the gun that was used, the gun we believe was stolen by the suspect from his grandmother. Ultimately, the suspect would not cooperate, so we did arrest him for the armed robbery of the Uber driver. So very unusual. Not the smartest guys. You have an Uber driver pick you up. You give him an address where you can be dropped off at, and in front of the residence where you’re being dropped off is where you commit the crime. So I don’t think this is the smartest guy in the world, but probably alcohol influenced poor decisions because some alcohol doesn’t help the situation. Not much good happens after midnight.”
Two men, one from Marathon and one from Big Pine Key were charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and last week.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Independence Cay is a men’s homeless shelter in Marathon, generally low key. We don’t have too many problems there, but in this case, we did. We’re not sure what started the altercation, but the victim in this case was preparing to leave. So it should have been over when the two individuals, one from Marathon, one from Big Pine, the homeless men did attack him, and we’re not sure what the weapon was, but appeared to be some type of a stabbing. There was injuries to the head and shoulder area of the victim. We got called out there. There was clearly an altercation. We saw blood on one of the suspects, clearly with injuries that took place. Independent witnesses verified the account of the victim that he was attacked and jumped by these two individuals for no reason. No weapon was recovered. The suspect was transported to the hospital for medical attention and needing stitches. Ultimately, the two males did go to jail for the charges. So it’s a shame. For every action there is a reaction, and if you do these type of things, you’re going to be held accountable. So it’s not the smartest move to think that you can just do this and get away and that’s nothing’s going to happen.”
Parmer’s Resort was the scene of a trespassing incident where two individuals were arrested recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “These are two pieces of garbage that we’re dealing with. We got a call out to Parmer’s. When we get there one person’s on the property. We were able to trespass warn him. The other person is not on the property, we’re unable to locate that person at the time. The other person had a warrant for their arrest. We’re looking for them anyway. So we did trespass the one person. As we continue to try to hone in and find the person with the warrant, the person we had just trespass warned, got to a phone, cell phone, and called in a false report of a violent domestic involving a weapon on Big Pine, trying to divert resources from looking for his friend to a false call. Our detectives and our deputies did a really good job to identify what was going on and figured out pretty quickly who was doing this, so we were able to eventually put the pieces together that the person we had identified and trespassed from Palmer’s had called in a false 911 call to divert resources. We did find that person again, arrest him on multiple charges. We eventually did find the other person who had the warrant we were looking for and did arrest that person as well. So ultimately, both people did go to jail. But it’s sad to see some of the crap we’ve got to deal with sometimes, and some of the stuff we go through with these numbskulls. Sometimes people just don’t learn, and that’s unfortunately, where we have the revolving door to Monroe County Jail. It’s these numbskulls just continue to reoffend, get rearrested and just destroy their lives. At some point in time you think you’d wise up and just start doing what you’re supposed to do. But I guess for the Sheriff’s Office, this is what we always talk about, job security.”
There have also been a number of wildlife cases in the news recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “My Marine officer has been so busy, and we’ve had so many cases. This past weekend in the Middle, Upper Keys, we got a person who on Long Key Bridge with a good sized goliath grouper. We know those are protected resources, species you’re not allowed to take. We also got a person out there on Long Key Bridge with protected parrot fish. You’re not allowed to take parrot fish. We had officers in the Upper Keys at the Marine Sanctuary, the no take zone up there, spear fishing in the sanctuary, spear fishing undersized, small mangrove snapper. In Islamorada, a person was harvesting out of season lobster, we identified and arrested that person with a noticed to appear. We just continued to be so busy in these resource cases that have just been overwhelming, the people that are just destroying our environment, taking everything, protected species, out of season, undersized, no dive flags, no fishing licenses. So we’ve had multiple stories go out this weekend. My three primary marine officers have just been doing a yeoman’s job, doing a great job out there, trying to protect these resources. Help our friends in FWC do what we can protect the resources to make sure they’re there for today and they’re there for tomorrow.”
MCSO worked very closely with the Key West police department for a stabbing last week.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “The city of Key West this last year has had a few violent cases. They’ve had some gun shootings and stabbings. So I’m not sure what’s going on there. Sometimes it’s just an anomaly, but the city has been experiencing some violent crimes. I know the chief is doing a good job trying to hold people accountable. They’ve made arrests on almost all those cases, but just sad to see people would divert to knives and guns and these acts of violence, again, knowing that you’re just going to get caught sooner or later. I just don’t understand the irrational behavior that people have some time. They’re thinking more with emotion, not logic and they’re not thinking about for every action there is a reaction.”