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.
Wildfires restricted travel last week.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Last week was a very busy week. This is a second time we’re dealing with wildfires, which has been impeding our ability to get to and from the Keys, so frustrating as it is for all of us trying to transition to and from Miami or airports or doctor’s appointments or get people to and from work. So we’ve been dealing with this the last week, and we are thankful for the rains. The heavy rains are going to really help those wildfires to knock some of the stuff out. We’ve been talking to the team members in Miami Dade County about this, trying to get information, which has been kind of sketchy, limited, but we’re trying to get information last week, to try to pass on to our citizens, to try to use our Sheriff’s Office app to get these messages out fast as we can. But it looks like things are under control. I got a call last night from the Division of Forestry in the Dade County Fire Department that said they thought they had a handle on stuff. They were looking forward to the rains coming in today, they thought about 75% of the fire last night was contained. I’m sure this rain is going to help. So I think we’re doing pretty good for the moment. But we’ve been in just such a dry spell.”
A presentation of a check for unused funds at the Marathon City Council meeting will happen tomorrow from the MCSO.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We always talk about fiscal responsibility. We talk about managing public funds. I take this very serious. Every year we talk about money we return back to the cities and counties, part of a municipal police contract we have with Marathon. This year again, we’ve underspent our budget, which is a good thing. Obviously, most contracts come in over budget. We always come in under budget. We take it very serious to manage every penny of tax payers’ money. We will be returning 123,000 and change to the city of Marathon for the municipal police contract they have with the sheriff’s office to provide services out there. So I’m always proud when we can turn over a check. We know it goes to good causes back in the city that do good stuff, projects, them being surprised about some unexpected money coming in is always like a Christmas present to the city or county when those checks come in. So we’re really, really happy. I told the city they were getting that money. They were ecstatic.”
An incident at the Marathon substation happened last night.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “The details are still a little sketchy, but there was a family, a son, a mother, a girlfriend, some other person in the car that all went out to a Mother’s Day dinner. Well, while out for Mother’s Day dinner, a lot of alcohol was being consumed. So while driving down the road, there was intoxicated people in the car. They’re going north on US 1. They’re in a large SUV, a domestic disturbance starts going on in the car, with people yelling each other, the male disrespecting the girlfriend and the mother of the boyfriend, getting mad and pulling hair. So they’re yelling and screaming, pulling hair and having a domestic altercation, they come to a screeching stop, dead on US 1, just south of the station, and one person gets out of the car, and other people are jumping out of the car. The officers coming out of the station, and they’re going there to try to get people apart, separated, because they’re all yelling and screaming and running in the middle of the highway causing major traffic issues. As we come up, it turns into a melee where now the officers are being the subject of these attacks. One officer got battered and uniform shirt got ripped almost off. Another one, we’re trying to de-escalate the situation. One of the girls comes up with her fist in a ball, come in behind the officer, and threatened to batter him. She winds up being taken down to the ground and taken to jail. Overall, we arrested four people out of the vehicle for domestic battery, one of the individuals in the car battering a law enforcement officer for attacking and punching one of the officers, for an assault, for a threatening to batter one of the officers with their fist. Another charge, resisting. So we wind up taking four people with the jail right in the middle of the highway, right in front of the substation. It’s just crazy. You’re off for some family time with your mom, your girlfriend, someone else in the family, and this is what it turns into. It always talks about alcohol influenced decisions. If you can’t handle your alcohol, don’t drink, or know your limitations. But what a sad day. Started out as a nice family day on Mother’s Day, and turned into everyone going to jail on serious charges, but it continues to show you how fast things can turn bad in law enforcement, you’re at a shift change, you see some disturbance up on the road. You come out of the station to try to see what’s going on, and then you try to break up parties who are fighting in the middle of the road, and then everyone’s anger turns to the police and those family units then unite as a front to fight the police. When we’re there to try to help protect them, separate them, keep them from getting hurt, their anger forces our officers to have to be in defensive mode to protect themselves quickly. So really unusual, but just goes to show you how things goes from zero to 60, just that fast in law enforcement.”
Also in Marathon recently, a guy was throwing stuff off the roof of the apartment complex that turned into a shooting incident. The gunman apparently took his own life.
Sheriff Ramsay said there was “a male on the roof, allegedly throwing bottles and stuff off the roof at traffic going by on the Boulevard. So we send a couple units out there. Patrol cars get there. As soon as they get there, we get calls from citizens reporting now, shots fired. Officers get out of the car, and they go up to the building, and they just start getting in the stairwells to make their way to the rooftop, when all sudden they started hearing multiple gunshots going off. We had three patrol cars parked in front of the complex as the officers are running stairwells. This individual has an assault rifle. This is a confirmed active shooter situation. He’s got an AR15, 223 caliber assault rifle and a Glock, and he is peppering and Swiss cheesing the patrol cars. He’s shooting through the front windshield, shooting out the side windows on the driver passenger side, shooting around through the roof into the driver’s compartment. Presumably, he didn’t know whether the cars were occupied or not. So all the bullet wounds are to the patrol cars. Went in the front windshield, right in the driver’s seat, went in the front and passenger side windows, right in the driver compartment again, and then the roof shots went in the roof, right down from the roof into the driver compartment. So we have to presumably believe that he believed that officers were seated in the car and was trying to shoot and kill the officers in these cars. Thank God they just got out and were approaching the building. The officers held position and held weapons drawn in case he tried to come down. We knew we had him isolated on the roof at that point in time. We called in for additional resources. We had to establish an inner and outer perimeter. We had to shut down the access points on Sombrero Boulevard so traffic couldn’t pass the condo. We had to bring in our friends at FHP, FWC, custom border protection to help out for additional manpower. It was a very tense situation. We called our tactical team and our SWAT team responded. We set up a command post, had command staff out there, I was out there myself. We ultimately had to get a helicopter from Miami Dade County Sheriff’s Office to respond so we could get a look at the rooftop and see what was going on, see if we could see the shooter. They sent one helicopter with a light, they could see what appeared to be a male that was down, and they believed blood from the head area. They sent the second helicopter about 10 minutes behind that, with a sniper, a SWAT team sniper, so we waited for the second helicopter to get on station and to provide cover for the responding officers who were going to have to make an approach through the hatchway to the roof to determine if there’s anybody else on the roof, if this person was truly dead. What was going on? So once we had a helicopter hovering with a sniper to help cover the approach, we made the tactical entry to the roof. Tactical approach determined the shooter was a 53 year old male who was deceased with a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. That point in time, we determined there were no other active assailants, and we were able to break down the outer perimeter, start letting traffic flow, releasing some units back to the patrol zones, because we had to pull deputies in from the south and north ends as well. Then we had to bring in our major crime detectives to start the investigation. This appeared to be a distraught male who had been fired from his job two weeks earlier. Wife had filed for divorce, and the divorce became final just two days prior. So just a distraught male who, for some reason, was going to take his anger and frustration out on everybody else, in this case, the police, especially. It’s sad to go out and take your life in any way, but so sad for the family and friends that this is the last way they’re going to remember this guy is trying to shoot up and kill police officers. It’s just so sad, but it goes to show you, we’re responding to a disturbance call one minute, and the next minute, our cars are getting Swiss cheesed with an assault rifle. It just continues to show you, as safe as the Keys are, things can go bad really fast anywhere. It just takes one person who’s got anger or mental illness or some ax to grind, access to a weapon to take some crazy actions, so a really sad day overall for everybody. Just, thank God the officers and civilians, no one got hurt, other than the assailant.”
Michael Stapleford of KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM pointed out, “Again, your officers ran towards danger to protect the public, and thank God, as you said, they are safe. It is National Law Enforcement week. We give examples each and every week of the heroism and bravery of your officers and this week is time to particularly recognize that, even though we should recognize it all year long, the National Law Enforcement week is this week.”
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Thank you for that. Definitely want to honor and remember the law enforcement officers who are doing a difficult, challenging job out there. Some aren’t happy with police when they get a ticket, but at the end of the day, they’re only doing their job. Their jobs are to protect and serve, do everything we can to keep our citizens safe, whether be on the highway or in these situations here.”