Police: Pier injury caused by drunkenness
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
The man airlifted to Miami after falling from the White Street Pier on Wednesday was allegedly drunk and belligerent before falling asleep atop the seawall Wednesday morning, according to police.
“I believe [the man] was under the influence of alcohol,” wrote Officer Gustavo Medina in an incident report released Thursday.
The 57-year-old homeless man remained in critical condition Thursday and also unidentified by Key West police. Officers found his birth certificate and a copy of his Alabama’s driver’s license in a backpack left at the pier — but other pieces of identification were also found.
“It’s just not clear and we don’t release names until next-of-kin has been notified,” said spokeswoman Alyson Crean.
Out of respect for the man’s family, who police have yet to locate, the name was redacted from the police report, Crean said.
He remained in critical condition Thursday, but that was all the city could confirm, Crean said. He was flown by LifeNet Wednesday from the pier to a Miami hospital in critical condition.
Police arrived at the pier at about 10:15 a.m. Wednesday to find the man face down in the shallow, rocky water below one edge of the pier, according to the incident report police released Thursday.
Two men were holding the injured man’s head above the water, police said. “We were able to see short, shallow breathing coming from the male face down,” Medina wrote. “The individual was not alert and unresponsive to our voices.”
A plastic Skol vodka bottle was found in the water near the area where the injured man fell, police said. Officers also found a fresh, cold six pack of Busch beer inside a backpack that was attached to the man’s green Nerve bicycle, the report stated.
David Keller, 58, of Key West, told police he noticed a man sleeping on the wall at the end of the pier at about 10 a.m.
Fifteen minutes later, Keller said he looked up and saw the man was missing from the pier. He went over to the wall’s edge and saw the man face down in the rocks and water, police reported.
Two other men went over the rail and grabbed the fallen man, lifting and holding his head above the water until help arrived.
The injured man was estimated to be 6-foot, 2-inches and at least 220 pounds, police said.
Randall Ferrell, 59, of Parkersburg, W. Va., and his brother-in-law David Russell, 54, of Cutler, Ohio, were the two men who jumped over the wall once they realized a man was in the water, police reported.
The injured man earlier had been on the pier acting “belligerent, and began yelling and cursing at people before he fell asleep,” two homeless men told police.
gfilosa@keysnews.com