CHIEF DILLON DENIES THAT REMARK WAS EVER MADE
It was 8:45 a.m., July 24, 2001. A murder suspect aboard a boat at Garrison Bight was holding a gun to the head of the boat's captain. The tense hostage standoff had prompted the Sheriff's Special Weapons & Tactics (SWAT) team to get into position, as the early morning sunlight threw long shadows over the unfolding drama.
The 35-year-old Cuban national, wanted as a prime suspect in the shooting death of his wife the day before in Hialeah, was standing in the moving boat as it meandered around Key West's well-known and often busy waterway. He was holding a gun to the head of his hostage, the owner of that boat.
The man claimed he had "made some mistakes" and wanted to go to Cuba. But he was due for one more mistake. That was when he fired at the gathering group of law enforcement officers. And that was when Deputy John McGee, a sharp-eyed sniper with the Sheriff's SWAT team, took him out, critically wounding him with a clean shot to the chest.
It was a Key West Police Department operation, but the Sheriffs SWAT operation has been routinely assisting local law enforcement agencies, when needed, for 15 years.
The KWPD now has its own SWAT— or Special Response Team— but considering its price tag of more than $100,000 annually, some have questioned why it's needed— especially when the Sheriff's team is so readily available.
Criticism has been especially intense since Lt. Greg Buck, the leader of the Key West SWAT operation, tried to explain to Solares Hill writer Mark Howell why Key West needs its own SWAT team.
Two reasons Buck came up with: "Wigged-out" cooks with guns at the Navy base, and the possibility that foreign ships, principally "Germans", could be bringing in drugs.
The comments drew an immediate and sharp rebuke from the commander of the Naval Air Station, Capt. Lawrence Cotton, who criticized Buck's hypothetical musings.
Police Chief Buz Dillon went on the radio to defend Buck. "He never said anything like that," Dillon said, suggesting that Howell had simply made up the whole thing.
Meanwhile, Buck is reportedly no longer in charge of the KWPD detective division. He's back on road patrol.