KEY LARGO, Fla. – Deputies are still investigating a Christmas Day morning bloody melee in the Florida Keys. And on Wednesday, they arrested the 48-year-old man who was accused of chasing women with a rock until another man threatened him with a broken beer bottle.
While enraged over a romantic relationship, a third man used a machete during the savage group fight that left four people injured -- including a woman who suffered a cut in the neck -- in Tavernier, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies said the group appeared to be intoxicated after the fight broke out about 4:20 a.m. on the 400th block of Burton Drive. Fire rescue personnel took two victims to the nearby Mariners Hospital and two others to Kendall Regional Medical Center in southwest Miami-Dade County.
Javier E. Rivera, 19, is accused of wielding the machete. Deputies arrested Rivera and German Rivera, 25, and seized the machete on Christmas Day. Deputy Deborah Johnson arrested Hernandez about 9 a.m. on Wednesday at 880 La Paloma Rd., in Key Largo.
Both Javier and German Rivera, of Homestead, are each facing charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and burglary with an assault or battery. Hernandez, who reported he works as a landscaper, is facing a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.