September 20 — Every day in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department is an adventure.
Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about what’s been going on in the county.
Over the weekend, Sheriff Ramsay was given a number of awards at a celebration, including the Best Elected Official Award as well as the Man of the Year Award.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “I had a good time, saw some great people get some great awards. Lucky and blessed that I have the support I do from the citizens. As you know these are voted online by your peers and citizens, so I was surprised, definitely honored. It was humbling to receive one, let alone two awards. I appreciate that from all our citizens and listeners. It was an interesting night for sure. I went home very humbled.”
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department has had a pretty busy week.
There was a robbery in Islamorada where someone pulled a knife in a convenience store around 1:30 a.m. last week. A 33-year-old male from Tavernier came into the store wearing a mask.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Right now it’s not unusual with COVID for people to be wearing a mask, obviously. He gets a Red Bull and a candy bar, gives the attendant $10 to get the register open. Once the register opens up, he pulls a knife and starts reaching around and trying to rob the attendant of the cash.”
It turns out, though, that the attendant had his own knife and got it out, and slashed the suspect in the arm. The suspect then dropped the money and ran out the door with a candy bar.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It was a difficult case initially because the surveillance footage was hard to get. When we get it it’s a little grainy from the convenience store and the guy being masked. So we had to really work hard. We got detectives on this case. We did a lot of good work to canvass the neighborhood and the surrounding areas.”
Sheriff’s deputies were able to track down the car to a half a mile away from where the suspect lived. A search warrant for the car and the house was obtained, where deputies found a pair of pants consistent with what the suspect was wearing that night, a knife and about a hundred ziplock baggies with what looked like heroine residue inside.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “This appears to be a person who is a drug user, potentially wanna be drug dealer. Inside the house also was a wife and a small child.”
The man was arrested for robbery and aggravated assault. Department of Children and Family Services was also notified.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “So really sad case for so many different ways, but I’m really glad we were able to arrest him pretty quickly, hold him accountable and assure the safety of our citizens.”
A snorkeling accident last week saw a 74-year-old man from the mainland pass away after losing consciousness in Key Largo. On Friday a 20-year-old Florida man lost consciousness in the water off of Alligator Reef in Islamorada and passed away as well.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s so sad to see these. We see dive deaths sometimes where people are diving in scuba, deep water, difficult conditions, but it’s so unusual and odd to see people who drown while snorkeling in shallow waters, but we did have two deaths. The Sheriff’s office are aware of these.”
An investigation to make sure there was no foul play was conducted and in both instances, it looks as though foul play was not involved. The medical examiner will have a cause of death in the future.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “Sometimes these are blackout conditions. Depends on the age. When you see younger people, sometimes they’re hyperventilating and just stress in the water. Some are potential accidental drownings, even though you’re in shallow waters. Some people start panicking and instead of being vertical, they go horizontal. You’re more likely to go underwater when you’re horizontal.”
Older individuals will sometimes be medical emergencies where a person might suffer a heart attack or stroke due to the exertion in the water.
So each incident will be looked at to determine what took place.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “These are always sad. We have thousands and thousands of people who are diving and snorkeling and in the water each and every day.”
In another incident, a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputy was driving in Dade County and a driver came up behind him in the patrol car. The person passed the patrol car recklessly — at a very high rate of speed.
The officer attempted to stop him. He would not stop. The police in Miami-Dade were contacted and they were waiting and joined the pursuit.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We eventually got the car to stop somewhere further in Dade County. He was really angry he got stopped and he was angry saying saying ‘you had no jurisdiction. You can’t stop me.’ So this person that was a sovereign citizen who thought that he knew the law and thought he would just laugh and joke and pass a marked car and thought maybe he could get away with it. But our officers do have authority when crimes are committed outside our jurisdiction. We are legally authorized to stop somebody, hold, detain them for the local authorities and then use our information to build probable cause. Once Miami-Dade County got into pursuit and he wouldn’t stop for them either, made it easier for them to arrest him.”
In terms of the issues with migrants, now people are beginning to hold migrants for ransom. Two men were arrested in Marathon who were attempting to travel to Cuba and return with migrants. Additionally, two men were recently sentenced for smuggling migrants for a ransom case.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “They were holding these migrants who came across as ransom for $15,000 to keep them locked up. Telling the family if you don’t give us the money, we’re going to kill them or we’re going to bring them out to the ocean and throw them in the ocean. A sad case to see these people from these foreign countries are in such difficult ways by taking such risks to come here and then to be held captive either for ransom or some kind of sex trade or other work related stuff where they’re forced labor. They become a victim in these third world countries, they’re trying to get to a better place and they’re victimized here by people who don’t care about their safety and well being. This type of stuff is sickening.”
The migrant issue is seeing two or three landings a day.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We see no light at the end of the tunnel. This is going to continue for a long period of time. I think the US government is sending the wrong message which is encouraging mass migrations from so many other countries. We hope that the US government will try and get some better immigration polices in place to better control what’s happening for a lot of reasons — safety and well being, but also the drugs that are coming across the southwest border and other areas as a result.”
The fentanyl is coming into the country in record numbers.
Indeed, a 40-year-old man from Key West was arrested for trafficking fentanyl recently. He was a suspect in a domestic violence situation and when Sheriff’s deputies located his car, they discovered about 5.2 grams of fentanyl, which is enough to kill thousands of people because fentanyl is so deadly.
The man was arrested on numerous drug charges.
In an attempt to show the rest of the country what the migrant issue is really like, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently sent a few planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and the reaction there was not all that warm.
Indeed, a Massachusetts Congressman wants to investigate the governor’s office for human trafficking.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s just tough. Migration is a nationwide problem. I feel terrible for those border states who are just getting killed with this mass migration and these migrants are being dumped on these cities and states by the US government. It’s just not fair. To have 50 migrants come to Martha’s Vineyard, I thought it was great, but you saw the outrage. They bused them out of there as fast as they could. It’s a shame to see that the Republicans and Democrats are all fighting and don’t get along. If we’re going to have open borders, we need to have a plan on how to deal with it and if we’re going to expect these southwest border states to have to have all the migrants come in and be affected and have them pay, then the other states all have to chip in themselves. It just can’t be a couple border states which are carrying all the water. I feel terrible for those states and these border towns are so poor. If you want the best for people, this is a great country and people want to come to, immigration needs to be done in a proper manner where you’re vetted and you’re coming through and you’re doing the proper paperwork and you’re approved to be in this country like everyone else has done in the past. But to just have open borders and have millions and millions of people rushing into the country is a recipe for disaster. We have to look at the bigger picture that we cannot sustain this immigration policy that’s occurring right now in this country and we need to get Congress and Senate and the leaders in DC to figure out what’s the best practice.”