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.
Lobster mini season is just around the corner, but there have been some resource violations ahead of time, including a man being cited for illegal lobster and fish activity near Tavern Creek Bridge.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We continue to do what we can to protect our resources, but there’s always people that want to start early. But we did go after this individual at about the 90 Mile Marker again, harvesting undersized fish and out of season lobster. So we keep trying to send a message to hold these people accountable. Another one of my officers up around the fills was doing a resource check. We find a guy fishing on the side of road around the fill, has an undersized fish with him and we also notice he’s cooking. He’s got a little skillet on a burner cooking food. We come up and look in the skillet, we see three small snapper, not much bigger than your palm of your hand, that he just harvested and just gutted and threw in a skillet. So really unusual. We took them right out of the skillet, still burning hot, put them on the measure to measure them and charged him with undersized snapper. So you don’t generally see people that have these small, little snapper cooking them as they’re fishing, eating them. We don’t generally take fish out of the skillet while they’re being cooked and measure them. That was kind of unusual, but still, we he harvested them illegally, and we know that he has to be held accountable.”
There was a story about a domestic incident on Stock Island involving knives recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s still developing. This is late last night. We had two separate matters involving knives on Stock Island. One was involving two family members who got in a fight and both armed themselves with knives and one got stabbed in the hand. One had some damage to his hand. As a result, the person who was the more aggressor actually had to be taken to Miami for nerve damage to the hand. He’s a suspect. He’s our prime suspect in the case. We’re still investigating. But at this point in time, I think we’re going to focus on getting warrants for his arrest for aggravated assault, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, for slicing the other person, and he got the worst of the damage of the two. But unusual, we do see domestics, where we see family members involved in physically assaulting, battering or even at times like this, taking knives to one and another. It’s so hard to fathom how you could be so angry with a relative that you’re willing to inflict serious bodily injury, but it’s always dangerous for deputies come up to one person armed with a knife, let alone two, and try to deescalate and de-arm and deal with these people. We did have them fleeing. One person was at the hospital and fled before we got there, had to track him down and then when that’s going on, we had a second fight, two individuals with a knife involved, neighbors, both 25 year old males, some type of argument which escalated into a knife being brandished and threats of violence there too, as well. Deescalated that neither person wanted to press charges, wasn’t a whole lot we could do. We left. A short term later, got called back there again when they reengaged and reactivated this fight between the two of them. So we had to respond back out again to these situations. That’s why sometimes it’s difficult. We want to sometimes make an arrest to deescalate and cause separation, knowing that if we don’t and we leave, it’s not uncommon for the fight to re-engage and escalate and even get worse. That’s why I prefer the arrest policy with domestic violence mandates on domestic situations, one party goes to jail because the law doesn’t want two people to not want to press charges. Then when we leave, they wind up getting back in a fight, someone gets killed, which is wasn’t very uncommon before the law took place. So it’s difficult and challenging to be a police officer anytime, especially at night time on Stock Island where people who’ve been drinking and have knives and are in a very hostile situation where they’re willing to potentially stab a family relative. If they’re willing to stab a family relative, they’re probably willing to stab one of my men and women too. So the fear factor for us for safety concern, is always at high levels during domestics, which we know the two most dangerous calls for law enforcement is either a traffic stop or domestic violence call.”
A drug arrest happened last week for two Stock Island residents who had arrest warrants for fentanyl sales, which found 40 Tramadol pills, one gram of suboxone, one gram diazepam, a Digital Scale, and 17.1 grams of an unknown powder being sent to a lab for identification.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We talk about fentanyl, one of the most deadly, dangerous drugs out there. That’s what most people are overdosing, dying on. A lot of times they don’t even know they’re ingesting fentanyl. A lot of times drug dealers lace cocaine and marijuana with fentanyl to try to increase the high, and someone may be buying what they think is only marijuana or cocaine, not knowing that it’s also doused with fentanyl. So we had our special operations team, our Narcotics Division, had made five separate purchases from these two individuals, both 41 years of age, one male, one female, both living on a boat in Stock Island at the marina there. So we did come out and execute these arrest warrants. We did search, find a litany of drugs, drug paraphernalia, drug scales, all signs indicative of not personal use, but drug dealing. So these are potentially, we believe, drug users and drug dealers who don’t care about the safety, well being of anybody, and are willing to sell people fentanyl, knowingly or unknowingly, jeopardizing their safety, their lives, and if someone does overdose and die, these drug dealers don’t care. They’re unfazed. They continue to sell no matter what. If someone dies from their drugs, they don’t care at all. It’s such a sad situation to see this total disregard for life and safety that we have to continue to attack these people. This is part of the reasons you see me coming after these drug dealers when I can prove that the drugs they sold to somebody caused them to overdose and die. Every time I can prove it, I’m going to arrest that drug dealer for murder charges.”
Someone was brandishing a handgun at hotel staff in the Upper Keys recently.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s a hotel about the 99.5 mile marker up on the ocean side. Individual was in a hotel room apparently had been placed in the wrong room. The management tried to talk to him about being in the wrong room. He was apparently very argumentative, very agitated, and they went back and told the manager and staff that the guy wouldn’t even talk to them. They apparently went back with security and the manager, they had security shirts, the hotel outfits on, clearly they were from the hotel. They knocked on the door. Hotel has a window so you can look through see who’s out there. They identify themselves as hotel security and hotel management. The male with his wife was inside from Miami, very agitated again, opened the door, angry with a Glock G43X in his hand, and got into another argument with the management team, who were trying to calmly say, you’ve been placed in the wrong room. We need to move you to the room that you’re supposed to be in. Someone else is supposed to occupy this room. And this just turned into a heated exchange. We got called by the wife who said that there’s two people at the door, which were the hotel staff, which were given a hard time. So we actually got called by the suspect’s wife in this case. We get on scene, we figure out what’s going on. The hotel employees, the security officer and the manager, do not want to press charges for the aggravated assault with the deadly weapon, but we elected to arrest him for improper exposition of a weapon. His actions were so angry and agitated and aggressive. Team members were concerned that there could be a re-engagement with him and this weapon, so they elected to arrest him for this display of this weapon. It was pretty clear talking to him and the wife, they had no reason to believe that they’re in fear. They clearly knew it was hotel staff. They were just being idiots. And sometimes when you’re an idiot, you wind up going to jail. Unfortunately, that’s what took place here. We have better things to do, but we can’t have someone who’s in an angry, agitated state, flailing around with a gun and in a threatening manner. We can’t tolerate that, and we’re not going to tolerate that. So he went to jail. Guns are not toys. They are not used to threaten people in any manner or form. You discharge a weapon, you better be in the scope of Florida law that you have a lawful right to do it in defense of yourself or somebody else, but just to get someone’s attention or scare someone, you’re going to wind up going to jail. This isn’t the wild, wild west. We have to make sure we keep the Keys safe and secure. I hate every time I see people doing stupid stuff like this with firearms.”
Walter “Buddy” Collins with Coral Bay Marina, Inc., of Islamorada was honored with as a platinum donor to the Florida Sheriff’s Association last week.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I’ve known Buddy Collins a long time, good friend of mine, good friend to the sheriff’s office, good friend to the Sheriff’s Association. He’s been honored last week with a presentation I presented on behalf of Florida Sheriff’s Association, 30 years of supporting and I went out, and I always personally go out and drive to these individuals, businesses or homes, and spend time with them, just to make sure they know how much we appreciate them. We always talk about partnerships and working together, how important it is. He’s just a great partner, really good businessman in the community, have been here for a long time, has a great operation up there in Islamorada on the Bayside, there in Coral Bay. We appreciate Buddy and everything he does for us and his partnership for sure.”
Lobster mini season is about a week and a half away.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We’ll probably this Saturday, see almost all vacation rentals full, although summer is a quiet time for vacation rentals, but vacation rentals generally come in the week before mini season. So they’ll probably come in next Saturday, because as it goes through, Wednesday and Thursday will be the tail end of their time here in the Keys. They want to be here for that. So we should expect this Saturday to have a lot more people than normal on the road, at vacation rentals, boats in the water, at the boat ramps, people going out early trying to check spots. So we tell people be prepared and try to get fuel for your boat and car ahead of time before they get here, try to get to the grocery store before they get here. Next week, it’s probably going to be a pretty busy week around the county. Good for our businesses. Our locals who have to transition or have to be on the border, maybe not as good, but it is a part of life, so it’s coming. Be prepared.”