Key West police would only say it’s a death investigation and that “initial indications” show it’s likely a suicide.

The death was a shocker in small-town Key West, which even in 2026 maintains a these-things-doesn’t-happen feel.

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Instead of official police reports, locals learned of this shocker from police dispatchers via a scanner app called CrimeRadar.

I waited until morning to report, in case Key West police put out something. The agency isn’t known for willingly posting arrests, let alone something like a man jumping from a towering landmark.

Here’s why I waited for the police’s statement:

If a breaking news story is the first draft of history, the police scanner conversations are the handwritten notes for that draft.

So it’s unclear whether the young man made it to a mainland hospital by Trauma Star, the lifesaving air ambulance helicopter people across the remote island chain rely for a level of trauma care unavailable in the Keys.

People are speaking in real time during CPR and other life-saving measures. Dispatchers are relaying which agency and rescue ambulance is en route or on the scene.

It’s impossible to fact-check a dispatch call. 

But this much is certain about the dispatch call:

The urgent grim reality of working to save a young man, who’d just plummeted from 88 steps above, could be felt listening to first responders communicate.

That’s why I made a reel story and posted on Facebook: to document the precision these first responders apply while they work on an injured person in the streets or homes.

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Even during the description of an unimaginable situation, their voices somehow gave me comfort.

They were putting hands on this dying young man, giving CPR and prepping him for the emergency helicopter, in voices that expressed we won’t give up. Everyone has a chance to survive.

Help is available 24/7

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 — the no-cost, 24/7 national hotline — to speak with a counselor. The website also has a chat option.

The 988 Lifeline mental health hotline is for anyone in need of emotional support.

“Our skilled, judgment-free counselors are here to provide compassionate support,” the program’s website says. “You deserve to feel heard and cared about anytime, anywhere, 24/7/365.”

Lighthouse museum employees called 911.

“They just got word that someone jumped off the top of the lighthouse,” a dispatcher says to Key West Fire Rescue.

“We have a 21-year-old of age male that jumped from the top of the lighthouse, not moving.”

The Trauma Star helicopter is then put on alert, as a dispatcher reports on the channel that the injured man is “agonal,” as in gasping for breath, indicating he’s dying.

”He’s bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth…foaming from the mouth.”

The next sentence spoken: “Has a pulse.”

The 3 minute, 13-second call ends with a dispatcher asking rescuers to switch to a different channel when they can.

“We’re in the middle of CPR right now,” a first responder says. “Give me just a minute.”

Built by 1948, the lighthouse, 938 Whitehead St., is a historic museum owned by Monroe County, and a tourist attraction maintained by the Key West Art and Historical Society [KWAHS].

The Key West Lighthouse and Keeper’s Quarters Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 daily. Visitors can climb the 88 steps to the top for a view of Old Town.

Police haven’t indicated when they’ll tell us more about the young man who met his end in downtown Key West.

“The investigation is ongoing and more information will be provided at a later time,” police spokeswoman Alyson Crean said.

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I spoke with Chad Newman, the Florida Keys Film Commissioner about Hollywood, and an indie horror movie crew, visiting Key West this year.

“Stop, you’re going to get tased,” the unidentified agent repeatedly says.

“I go to work,” the man responds to the agent. “I need to work.”

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The arrest was on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, in downtown Key West by an agent — who in the fuzzy video — is dressed in a US Border Patrol-type uniform and driving an unmarked SUV.

The bicyclist is 19, according to the Key West Immigrant Support Network [KWISN], which posted the video Saturday after the incident, saying they only did so after getting approval from the 19-year-old’s family.

The video above, taken by a bystander, shows the agent holding the man down by kneeling over him on the pavement for about 30 seconds while he searches him and restrains his hands.

Before the video began, the agent “ripped” the man off his bike and “slammed” him to the pavement, KWISN said witnesses told them.

Bystanders called it a battery, the nonprofit said, adding:

“They state clearly that the teen did nothing to provoke the attack.”

As he straddles the bicyclist, the agent pulls items out of the man’s pockets and tosses them on the street.

Then the agent pulls the man to his feet by grabbing his hands, which are shackled, and puts him into the backseat of the SUV.

KWISN didn’t release any information on the man who was arrested but said they know his family. ”It doesn’t really matter what this teen's background is,” KWISN posted.

“No human deserves to be treated like this,” the group said.

“And today has been one of those days where it feels like nothing will ever be enough to stop this from happening.”

‘Get out of here’

“Sir, that’s a kid he’s not resisting you,” a man watching calls out to the agent. “You threw him off his bike. What are you doing, sir? That’s a kid.”

Another man watching the arrest calls the agent a fascist and a Nazi to his face.

“You’re a piece of s**t,” the man tells the agent.

“You’re a piece of s**t,” the agent replies.

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Once he shuts the rear SUV door, he stands outside the driver’s side and points to onlookers.

“Get out of here or you’re going to be arrested as well,” the agent tells them.

The men agree to stand 25 feet back from him.

“Get your face all over the internet,” one of the bystanders tells the agent, who walks back to the arrested man’s bicycle to move it out of the street.

“You think I care,” the agent replies, holding his hands outstretched, palms up.

“You should care, if you had morality,” a bystander says.

“You threw him off his bike for no reason,” the other man says.

The agent lifts up the bike that had been laying in the street, straightens it and rolls it to the sidewalk, where he just drops it.

“We have you on security cameras, he wasn’t resisting,” says a woman, who appears to also be recording the agent with her phone.

As the bike lands on its side, a man says, “They don’t care.”

Key West Newswire is reader-supported media

Thank you all for reading and subscribing.

An $8/month subscription helps keep this independent local news service running. That’s the cost of a decent cup of coffee from your barista.

Right now, fewer than 7 percent of my subscriptions are paid.

If that doubles, I would be able to spend much more of my work week reporting and writing local news from Key West.

Some of you have asked if you could make one-time payments. Of course.

My Venmo is @gwen-filosa. I also have Zelle.

I went solo on Aug. 3, 2024, after 27 years of working for news outlets such as the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Miami Herald, Miami’s NPR station WLRN, and the Key West daily and weekly papers.

A folk-rock sensation, Sage built her career DIY-style.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the label she founded, MPress Records. Her latest album is Canopy.

“I’ve always been kind of a DIY-er,” Sage told me on the podcast.

“My first business that I ever ran was the barrette business that I started in 7th grade with my best friend Jenny. Shout out to Jenny from 7th grade.”

Key West Newswire by Gwen Filosa is reader-supported news. To receive updates, become a free or paid subscriber.

The independent musician life means she’s traveled an unpredictable path toward success.

“One day you’re opening for a festival, and you’re playing in Germany for 10,000 people,” Sage said.

“And then the next night, you’re in a little dive bar in the middle of nowhere, playing for, you know, 13 people. And this is the way it’s been for me, up and down for most of my career.”

Sage will perform two shows at The Studios of Key West, on Feb. 17 and 18.

Tap here for ticket information.

Music was her first language

Sage can’t remember a time without playing music.

“I’ve always been doing music,” the New York-born artist said. “I went to the School of American Ballet from age 11.”

But before that, at 2 years old, Sage started playing the family’s piano that was in the living room. She played by ear.

“It was my first language in a lot of ways, to play piano by ear,” she said.

Growing up, she started writing lyrics. At first, it was a way to deal with being bullied at school.

“I quickly discovered that music would give me back whatever amount of energy and devotion that I put into it,” she said. “I’m so so lucky that I found that at a young age, because it’s always been there for me.”

Sage is a six-time Independent Music Award winner and a John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize recipientt. She’s toured alongside Rufus Wainwright, Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, and Judy Collins, and she’s performed with the New York City Ballet.

A love for vinyl

When Sage comes to Key West, she’ll have her brand new album, Canopy, in tow — on both vinyl and CD.

Turntables aren’t required, Sage said. She’s turned the record and CD packages into handheld art books.

“These are probably the most ambitious artistic packages I’ve ever designed,” she said. “I also have many of my own paintings in them that I created to accompany the music. So it all really tells a story.”

Sage’s humor is matched by her compassion. She matches her struggles with resilience.

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In 2018, at age 46, while on tour and ready to release a new album, she was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. Throughout the hospitals, treatments and pain, she kept the music close.

A year later, she said she was recovered enough to start working on a new albu. She released the album Character, a collection of songs centered on gratitude and empowerment.

Today, Sage calls herself a “cancer thriver” — not survivor — and has performed to raise awareness and funds for women’s health and youth homelessness programs.

Performing live is its own brand of joyful meditation, she said.

“I hope that in some way, my concerts can be a kind of meditation for people to just feel human and like they’re in community,” Sage said. “To use music as a way to let go and shed some of the negativity and fear that’s in our midst right now.”

Key West Newswire by Gwen Filosa is reader-supported news. Become a free or paid subscriber to receive updates.

Macy Gray will play the Key West Theater on Friday, Oct. 24.

The Key West show is part of her 25th anniversary tour celebrating the release of her debut album, On How Life Is which went triple-platinum after its 1999 release.

Gray gave the world "I Try," an unlikely perfect love anthem. Like her voice, the song remains an ethereal gift like none other we could have imagined.

From Pitchfork's review:

"...written entirely by Gray, On How Life Is is a 10-song embrace of uncontainable warmth and honest reflection, the debut album that only a 31-year-old mother of three could create.

This is music for adults: Gray’s songs sweat and cry and mourn, f**k and regret, praise God and even plot murder.

They’re sung confidently and with hunger, but never with desperation; when things feel irredeemable, like on the sprawling I-still-love-you ballad “Still,” Gray nonetheless makes it clear she’s OK—or if not totally OK, at least at peace."

Listen now | A Key West resident was held by federal agents for 9 hours on July 21, 2025 after filming a US Customs and Border Protection agent.

In full makeup and arena rock glamour, the group of little people is known for unleashing electrifying KISS-inspired shows and appearances.

Mini KISS has played and appeared with the legendary KISS band members - including a spot in the 2010 Super Bowl commercial for Dr. Pepper, and made a name for themselves on TV, in movies and on tour. 

Mini KISS will play the Key West Theater on Sunday, May 18 at 8 p.m. 

Tickets: thekeywesttheater.com/e/?event=914393

Gwen Filosa Media Key West is now on Substack.

Follow for coverage of Key West news, culture and assorted shenanigans: gwenfilosa.substack.com

To support us, leave a good review, subscribe to this podcast and share our work. Send story ideas, news tips and warm wishes: gwenfilosa@gmail.com

Thank you!

www.minikisses.com

www.thekeywesttheater.com

For more than 35 years, Debbie Gibson has been a force: a singer, songwriter, producer, musician, actor, and entrepreneur.

She's been famous since she was a kid. Gibson took the music business by storm when she hit the Billboard Pop Charts at 16 with her song “Only In My Dreams.”

Debbie became the youngest artist ever to write, produce and perform a No. 1 hit song -  “Foolish Beat" - on the Billboard Hot 100 and entered the Guinness Book of World Records. She remains the youngest female to hold that record. Oh and less than a year later, she did it again with “Lost in Your Eyes," which she wrote and produced.  

Sure, her reporting helped overturn a murder conviction by revealing how it was based on questionable evidence, she won a Peabody and reinvented the podcast with Serial. 

But did you know we also palled around while working as rookie reporters in snowy New Hampshire back in the late 1990s? Yeah, this doesn't get as much attention in the news reports. 

We talk about the deep dive Serial took into the Adnan Syed case. Watching him leave a courthouse a free man. Whether "true crime" fandom is a good thing. And attending the best dang wedding in Concord, New Hampshire.

Thanks to everyone at The Studios of Key West for your partnership on We're Not Finished, which was produced by Kevin Assam. 

Comedian Charly Esturilho and I talk shop, South Florida life and why his gigs include going into drug rehabs to perform for people in recovery.

Gwen Filosa is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist based in Key West. She is also a regular performer at Comedy Key West. 

Tory Mata recently won a prestigious 2022 South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artists grant that includes $15,000 and an exhibition at a Miami museum. We talk about how she finds inspiration on the roadside - there was a rusted fender in the desert one time and changing directions in art.

Jobie Jacomine, who performs as drag queen Puddin Tain, hosted the wildly successful Queer Keys fundraiser at the Key West Theater recently and has quickly become a popular performer at 801 Cabaret on Duval St. We talk about his New Orleans roots, queer stuff and the hustle needed to pay island rent.

I make this podcast with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida and producer Kevin Assam, a writer and artist in Key West.

Cori Convertito is the curator and historian for the Key West Art and Historical Society. We talk about the Writers in Paradise lecture coming up at Comedy Key West on Sept. 15. The list of writers who have lived on the island include Tennessee Williams, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Judy Blume, a longtime resident who runs Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, and the fella who wrote Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises.

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida, at 533 Eaton St., and produced by Kevin Assam. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit tskw.org.

So I invited two guests. 

Rene Rodriguez, an award-winning writer  teaches at the University of Miami and runs the Bill Cosford Cinema for the UM School of Communication. We chatted about the significance of Nope, how it was shot with Imax cameras and whether it's too long. 

Runi Goyal is a former board member of the nonprofit Tropic Cinema in Key West. She now lives in Hawaii but she saw Nope while in Boston, after I asked her to be on the podcast. That is dedication to film. 

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida, and produced by Kevin Assam. 

Susannah Wells talks about theater work in Key West, the virtues of the board game Clue and we bond about making crafts when we were vacation Bible school kids.

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida. It's produced by Kevin Assam. 

Erin McKenna, an actor, dancer and founder of Love Cheeky apothecary, talks about her success on Key West theater stages, how she got her start performing and parking legally at the jumping bridge on Sugarloaf Key.

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West. 

Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist with a standup comedy side hustle. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter for Key West news updates. 

She performs regularly at Comedy Key West. She is headlining Wednesday, Sept. 7 as part of Womenfest 2022 Showtime is 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. 

Click here for tickets. 

David Sieminski shares about leather, sex stuff, running Leather Master Key West, and why some Key West leaders can calm down about Fantasy Fest nudity. 

This podcast is presented in partnership by The Studios of Key West and produced by Kevin Assam.

gwenfilosa@gmail.com

Sam Jindra is an actor, photographer, promoter, model and musician living in Key West. We talk about Vince Vaughn filming Bad Monkey in Key West, working behind the camera on movie sets, how she got into modeling and our mutual disappointment that we've been mispronouncing açaí all this time.

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org. 

Key West actor Su Nubia shared about working with the Fringe Theater, having 24 hours to create a new play, voiceover work and how on Earth she and I hadn't met before now. It's a small island.

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit. tskw.org. 

We're Not Finished is hosted by Key West-based journalist Gwen Filosa, who writes for the Miami Herald, and produced by writer and artist Kevin Assam. 

Margaret Killjoy and I talked anarchy, dealing with haters, great titles - A Country of Ghosts and The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion -  and she endures my inability to pronounce Appalachia, which she calls home. 

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org

Key West-based artist Kristyn LaMoia shared about how the island inspires her work and the challenges of preparing costumes for Fantasy Fest. 

This podcast is presented by The Studios of Key West. 

Los Angeles-based comedian Jackie Monahan joined me to talk shop about comedy Twitch show -- the Jackie Mo Show, which airs at 5 p.m. every Saturday. Her comedy special is These Lips, available on Amazon and Spotify. 

Belle Jampol, is a singer born and raised in Key West. We talked about why the Fabulous Spectrelles are so fabulous, learning music before she was even born, growing up in a musical family and what's next. 

Playwright Catherine Weingarten and I talked about her residency at The Studios of Key West and using humor to comment "upon societal pressures young women face to be impossibly good-looking as well as ridiculously humble."

For events and more programming at The Studios of Key West, visit Tskw.org. 

Kawana Staffney, the executive director of the Bahama Village Music Program, shared the history of the nonprofit that offers music lessons to local children at no cost.

Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist covering the Keys for the Miami Herald. She's also a standup comic, appearing weekly at Comedy Key West. 

For a list of events at The Studios of Key West, and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org.

Kristen and I talked about her novels, With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things, and about whether Florida is the gayest state.

Sharese shared her new single, "Fixer Upper," and we talked about making a living playing music in Key West. 

Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist covering the Keys for the Miami Herald. She also does standup, appearing weekly at Comedy Key West. 

Playwright Neal Ruchman and actor Cassidy Timms and I talked about "The Pickpocket's Daughter," which is at The Studios of Key West starting May 18-28. I asked why some of us find ourselves rooting for the criminal in a story and how Ruchman's family inspired the story. 

We're Not Finished is presented by The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida, located at 533 Eaton St. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org.

Gwen Filosa is a journalist based in Key West, Florida, who covers the Keys for the Miami Herald. She also does standup at Comedy Key West and is a sought-after dog-sitter. 

We're Not Finished is produced by Kevin Assam.

Emily Landis is a singer-songwriter who has become a regular at the Key West Songwriters Festival. We talked about writing big hit songs in Nashville, having a blast in Key West and she gave me tips on learning the guitar.

We're Not Finished is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West and hosted by Gwen Filosa, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covers the Keys for the Miami Herald.

New episodes are posted every Wednesday.

gfilosa@miamiherald.com

Tatum is on the schedule of the upcoming Key West Songwriters Festival, set for May 4-8. 

DJ Sanaris knows how to pack a dance floor and throw a rooftop New Year's Eve party on Duval Street. He told me how he landed in Key West and how he became a DJ after his Navy days. 

We're Not Finished is a podcast hosted by Key West-based journalist Gwen Filosa and produced by writer and artist Kevin Assam. The podcast is presented by The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org

New episodes go up on Wednesdays. 

Keys-based artist Kristen Norman and I talked about her stencil/street, feminist-charged art and how the Florida Keys inspire her work. 

The Studios of Key West is a leading art institute in South Florida, located at 533 Eaton St. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit Tskw.org

Gwen Filosa is a journalist covering Key West for the Miami Herald. She was part of the staff of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans that won two Pulitzer Prizes in 2006 for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

She also does standup comedy at Comedy Key West and has a strong deadlift game. Contact her at gwenfilosa@gmail.com. 

I also spoke with Emily Berg, who manages Books and Books at The Studios of Key West, about the latest titles and what it's like working for Judy Blume. [It's amazing]

The Studios of Key West is a leading art institution in South Florida, located at 533 Eaton St. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit tskw.org.

http://williamrhodesart.com/index.html

https://booksandbookskw.com/

The Studios of Key West is a leading art institution in South Florida. It's in downtown Key West at 533 Eaton St. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit tskw.org

http://cheryllulientan.com/bio/

yourecoming.com