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.
A man was arrested on Sunday for resisting arrest after a traffic stop.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “We always talk about stopping a car in what you think is a routine traffic stop. This car was speeding and driving on the shoulder, and the officer went to stop this car and then it turned into a pursuit. Eventually it pulled into a driveway. The driver jumped out of the car bailed out and ran into the house. This was a 32 year old male. So these are really difficult situations. You know why they’re running? Is this really their house? Do they run into someone else’s house? We’re trying to figure out a lot of stuff in a really short period of time, you have to make some quick decisions. Do we have a barricaded subject? Do we have some type of a hostage situation with the house they just ran into? Eventually we were able to make contact with the person inside and eventually the person did surrender, give himself up. It winded up being his parent’s house and the father made the kid come outside and turn himself in. But this was a minor traffic violation. He could have got away with a ticket, the worst case scenario, he could have gotten just a verbal warning or you could have got a ticket for driving on the shoulder, wasn’t a big deal. But it turned into a charge of eluding and resisting. It tied up resources and embarrassed his family and for what? For a ticket? Oh, come on. We never know what we start out with and what it winds up being in the end.”
A domestic violence incident recently saw a woman and two children injured. An 11-year-old was struck with a closed fist and a 37-year-old female was struck in the head and face several times.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “It’s a sad situation any time we talked about domestic violence. This is a matter occurred in Ramrod Key. A domestic took place between the male and female during the course in the domestic, it turned very violent with her being punched and attacked and kicked. At some point in time her 11 year old son tries to intervene to protect and save the mother. Then the adult male winds up punching him in the face. So you punch an 11 year old kid in the face and then the young daughter, was about 13, tries to intervene as well, her mother getting attacked, her brother getting beat up. She gets pushed and thrown down to the ground too as well. So this matters just going from bad to worse really quickly where three people were being victims of a battery domestic violence in this household involving young kids to see their mother getting attacked, let alone themselves being attacked by this adult male. So sad to see this. We got on scene and we quickly determined that he was the aggressor. We got medical attention to the victims involved here. We did arrest him on multiple charges, going to hold him accountable. To the officers responding if they’re being that violent to the people they say they love, how violent will they be to our men and women who respond to try to keep the peace? It’s always unpredictable. Two of the most dangerous calls for a police officer are traffic stops and domestic violence, are the two most deadly dangerous calls we have to encounter.”
A 51 year old Estero, FL, man was arrested Tuesday for sexual assault of a 13 year old.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “These cases are very difficult, very challenging, for sure. These cases are sometimes delayed. Sometimes that victims delay and when they do, it takes us time to try to put these cases together, which we wish we could rush faster. Because these situations, these people continue to reoffend. Especially when they’re not from this area, it’s harder to investigate and deal with these cases. But we always work with partner agencies to try to do field interviews or do forensic investigations with us. We’re always happy when we get some satisfaction, get some closure and hold these people accountable for these heinous crimes, and put these people where they need to be, in my jail and try to reassure these victims that someone cares, and then we have to get the victims help. These are so traumatic, these are life altering situations which affect people’s the rest of our lives. So we have to try to get some counseling, some help, and try to help people deal with some of the most difficult challenging times ever in your life.”
Two people from Miami were arrested with a number of drugs and paraphernalia.
Sheriff Ramsay said, “These traffic stops are the first number one complaint we get. But with them, we try to get our officers to be proactive and look for other signs of crimes that are occurring or drugs in these cases. When we do get a chance to get in these cars, we are seeing a lot of our drugs that come down to the Keys can be from Miami Dade County. So every time we can stop these cars and get into these cars and find these cars, bringing in methamphetamines and fentanyl, it’s always a good day to hold these people accountable and arrest them. We’re seeing more and more. I hate to say it, but we’re still so much better off than most areas, most areas are just, the communities are dying from drugs. We’re not there. And we’re not going to be there. But we still are seeing more of an impact of these drugs, which are mostly coming in from the southwest border. That’s where most of this stuff is coming from.”