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.
New Year’s Eve was quite a party, especially on Duvall Street.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We’re thankful we had a lot of people in town. Traffic was pretty heavy. Some of our key choke points as we expected, county road 905 was really busy coming in. We had traffic backlog about a mile, mile and a half. We had heavy traffic through Islamorada, Big Pine. We had extra staff, team members out trying to move traffic, trying to do traffic control. Overall it was a mostly safe weekend. We had a few fights as we would imagine, alcohol related. But overall nothing terrible. Trauma Star, our air medical program, this time of year it’s really really busy. We remain busy throughout the weekend, flying about five flights a day. In fact, our ship right now is that on a trauma call. So this is a one of the busiest time for the Trauma Star air medical program. So yeah, overall, good, safe holiday weekend for our family, friends and visitors. And that’s what we strive for.”
MCSO recently donated two cars to the Florida Keys Health Education Center.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I get plenty of extra patrol cars as we cycle out cars. Usually they go to auction, I can sell them. But I do try to give cars to needed nonprofits who do good stuff in our community. And AHEC does such a great job, in so many different ways, especially now with their pediatric dental program for the kids who have financial needs and their families. You see that bus going up and down the schools and trying to help out. We always want to be part of helping out. So yeah, Mike Cunningham asked me about some cars. I said, I’ll get you a couple of cars. So I gave him a Ford Taurus, a Dodge Charger and they’re going to use those, really put to good use. Then I’ve got three more vehicles that are going out to the Guidance Care Center here next week, a van and two cars to do transport of patients. So wherever we can, selling the cars for a little bit of money doesn’t do any good compared to giving these cars to nonprofits who do so good for so many people. It’s well worth giving these cars to those entities versus trying to sell them make a couple of dollars for the Sheriff’s Office.”
The Wounded Warrior Project Soldier Ride is coming up.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Friday, Saturday, we’ll be seeing the Soldier Ride. Starting from North End Academy working its way to Key West. You’ll see a good heavy support from the sheriff’s office to provide security. In North Key Largo, one of the lanes, the outside lanes will be blocked off for the riders. The inside lane the open for through traffic. During these times we say put your phone down, pay attention, support these wounded veterans, be part of the solution not part of the problem and make sure we make sure it’s a safe event as we go from Key Largo to Key West. It’s just a great event and our friends at Key West PD will take over and then support and protect the veterans throughout the Key West area. So really, really great event Friday and Saturday for sure.”
A person was arrested last Thursday for throwing a rock at an occupied vehicle.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It was at the Quarry Apartments in Rockland. It appeared to be between two people got into some argument. One person was in the car, the other person took a rock and threw the rock to the windshield, breaking out the window. When you throw a rock at a person, that by law can be classified as throwing a deadly missile. We think missile we think obviously a rocket but a missile was something that’s thrown, projected by a person in this case, which is a felony. There’s multiple charges here, throwing a deadly missile, criminal mischief. So the person who threw the rock ultimately went to jail, multiple criminal charges. But we always tell people just take a breath, it’s not worth it. For every action there is a reaction. Your actions to hurt somebody, damage something, break something is going to result in the reaction of you either going to jail, or the other person counter attacking you and maybe getting the best of you. Calmer heads have to prevail in life. When they don’t, bad things are likely to occur from bad actions.”
A 45 year old Key West Florida man was arrested on Saturday for spitting at sheriff’s office deputies and threatening to shoot and kill them.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Well unfortunately, law enforcement across the nation is having to take a bunch more crap than normal from people, so that’s just part of our job, sad as it is. We stopped a car for doing 75 in a 35. We found this 45 year old male driving this minivan. He was extremely intoxicated. We tried to deal with him about the 32 mile marker. He was very agitated right in the first place. When we’re stopping him, he was throwing beer cans out the window. We had back up units on scene. He was a combative, argumentative, threatened to kill my police officers. It took several officers to get him under control, arrest him. He had no driver’s license. So here’s a person who’s drunk, no driver’s license, doing 75 in a 35. It’s just part of our job dealing with dumb people, and it’s job security for law enforcement. There’s always somebody doing something stupid. That’s what we’re here for is to deal with stupid people. Alcohol is not an excuse, but alcohol for some people is not a good thing. Here that alcohol made this person threaten to shoot and kill a police officer, which is a crime. Every time you threaten my men and women, I’m going to charge you. I’m going to put you in my jail, and we’re going to hold you accountable. You cannot threaten my people, nor citizens and get away with it.”
A man was arrested for choking and hitting a woman on Friday. Then a woman was arrested for making threats with a knife.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We’ve got to deal with these people and try to deescalate as much as we can.”