KEY WEST, Fla. – Key West police arrested a man they said opened fire off Duval Street early Tuesday morning amid a brawl that sent the victim — headbutted by another participant — to the hospital.
Jail records show Jake Ryan Graziano, 27, of Big Coppitt Key, is facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, felony battery and discharging a firearm in public.
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According to police, the incident happened in the rear parking lot of 419 Duval St., a building containing multiple shops.
An arrest report states that the victim told police that he encountered Graziano and three other men in the parking lot while with his girlfriend and her mother.
The 19-year-old told investigators that while in the lot one of the men told him to “keep it going,” police said. According to the report, left to drop off the pair at their house, but said he returned to the lot because he felt the men had “called him out” and were disrespectful towards the two women.
That led to an argument in which one of the men, a 24-year-old, headbutted the victim, the man told police. The report states that he told investigators that he got to his feet and retreated behind a parked vehicle, then, as the men continued to walk towards him, took a knife out from his waistband to defend himself.
The report states that Graziano went to the passenger’s side of a pickup truck and then took out a gun, firing one shot into the ground, leading the victim to “put his hands up and (drop) the knife.”
Police said the victim, assuming he was shot, felt blood dripping from his face. He told police that he saw the men leave in the truck, of which he was able to capture the license plate and called 911.
Authorities said they traced the truck to Graziano and went to his home, finding him and two of the men there.
The report states that Graziano told detectives that he had been playing the “hand drum” on his truck while listening to music with friends when the man came up to them asking, “Are you good? Are you good?”
Police said Graziano told investigators that his friend began to fight with the victim and he wasn’t involved. The man who headbutted the victim said he had been stabbed in the fray, authorities said.
They said surveillance video would later show that Graziano was involved in the fight and grabbed the gun as the victim retreated behind the vehicle.
Graziano told police that he and his three friends left in the truck and that he threw the gun back into the truck.
“When confronted (with the fact) that police had towed his truck and we would be applying for a search warrant for his vehicle to retrieve the gun, Graziano changed his story and said when he dropped off (one of his friends), he placed the gun ‘somewhere,’” police wrote in the report. “When Graziano was asked where the location of the gun was, he said he could get the gun later and he could show it to us.”
Police said Graziano wouldn’t fess up to where the gun was and demanded a lawyer, but they would find out that “somewhere” turned out to be behind a backyard shed at his friend’s father’s home on Truman Avenue; Graziano’s friend said that he had asked to hide the Glock 48 at the property.
None of the other men mentioned in the report were listed in arrest records as of Wednesday morning.
Graziano was being held in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Key West jail facility with no bond listed as of Wednesday morning. An arraignment hearing is set for Tuesday.