by Gwen Filosa
Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Gwen Filosa, this weekly podcast features guests from the Florida Keys and beyond. Hear wild tales and unpredictable chats from Key West locals, interviews with the nation’s top musicians, comedians and writers. Gwen Filosa Media Key West LLC <br/><br/><a href="https://gwenfilosa.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">gwenfilosa.substack.com</a>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
4/5/2022
Pitch yourself as a guest, propose sponsorships, or reach out directly to the host.
May 30, 2026
<p>An unidentified 21-year-old man died Thursday night after police said he jumped from the top of the 90.5-foot Key West Lighthouse. </p><p>Key West police would only say it’s a death investigation and that “initial indications” show it’s likely a suicide.</p><p>The death was a shocker in small-town Key West, which even in 2026 maintains a these-things-doesn’t-happen feel. </p><p><p>My Substack is reader supported. To receive updates and support my work, become a free or paid subscriber. </p></p><p>Instead of official police reports, locals learned of this shocker from police dispatchers via a scanner app called CrimeRadar. </p><p>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. </p><p>Here’s why I waited for the police’s statement:</p><p><p>If a breaking news story is the first draft of history, the police scanner conversations are the handwritten notes for that draft. </p></p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>It’s impossible to fact-check a dispatch call. </p><p>But this much is certain about the dispatch call: </p><p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p><p>Share this story by tapping the button below</p></p><p>Even during the description of an unimaginable situation, their voices somehow gave me comfort. </p><p>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.</p><p><p><strong>Help is available 24/7</strong></p><p><strong>If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://988lifeline.org/"><strong>call or text 988</strong></a><strong> — the no-cost, 24/7 national hotline — to speak with a counselor. The website also has a </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://988lifeline.org/"><strong>chat option</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p><p><strong>The </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://988lifeline.org/"><strong>988 Lifeline</strong></a><strong> mental health hotline is for anyone in need of emotional support. </strong></p><p><strong>“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.”</strong></p></p><p>Lighthouse museum employees called 911. </p><p><p>“They just got word that someone jumped off the top of the lighthouse,” a dispatcher says to Key West Fire Rescue. </p><p>“We have a 21-year-old of age male that jumped from the top of the lighthouse, not moving.”</p></p><p>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.</p><p>”He’s bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth…foaming from the mouth.”</p><p><p>The next sentence spoken: “Has a pulse.”</p></p><p>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BpiWMHaKm/">3 minute, 13-second call </a>ends with a dispatcher asking rescuers to switch to a different channel when they can.</p><p>“We’re in the middle of CPR right now,” a first responder says. “Give me just a minute.”</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Land/All/Article/1955710/key-west-lighthouse/">Built by 1948, the lighthouse</a>, 938 Whitehead St., is a historic museum owned by Monroe County, and a tourist attraction maintained by the Key West Art and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kwahs.org/the-key-west-art-historical-society-reopens-the-key-west-lighthouse-keepers-quarters-museum-following-extensive-restoration/">Historical Society</a> [KWAHS]. </p><p>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. </p><p>Police haven’t indicated when they’ll tell us more about the young man who met his end in downtown Key West. </p><p>“The investigation is ongoing and more information will be provided at a later time,” police spokeswoman Alyson Crean said. </p><p><p>My Substack is reader-supported. To receive updates, become a paid or free subscriber. </p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Key West Newswire by Gwen Filosa at <a href="https://gwenfilosa.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">gwenfilosa.substack.com/subscribe</a>
February 24, 2026
<p>Apple TV's 'Bad Monkey' Wraps in Key West. </p><p>I spoke with Chad Newman, the Florida Keys Film Commissioner about Hollywood, and an indie horror movie crew, visiting Key West this year. </p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Key West Newswire by Gwen Filosa at <a href="https://gwenfilosa.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">gwenfilosa.substack.com/subscribe</a>
February 15, 2026
<p>A Key West man riding his bike to work was stopped by a federal agent who held him on the ground and threatened to break out his stun gun. </p><p>“Stop, you’re going to get tased,” the unidentified agent repeatedly says. </p><p>“I go to work,” the man responds to the agent. “I need to work.”</p><p><p>Key West Newswire by Gwen Filosa is a reader-supported publication. Become a free or paid subscriber to receive news updates. </p></p><p>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.</p><p>The bicyclist is 19, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUwHUzYEb6g/">Key West Immigrant Support Network </a>[KWISN], which posted the video Saturday after the incident, saying they only did so after getting approval from the 19-year-old’s family. </p><p>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. </p><p>Before the video began, the agent “ripped” the man off his bike and “slammed” him to the pavement, KWISN said witnesses told them. </p><p>Bystanders called it a battery, the nonprofit said, adding:</p><p> “They state clearly that the teen did nothing to provoke the attack.”</p><p>As he straddles the bicyclist, the agent pulls items out of the man’s pockets and tosses them on the street. </p><p>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. </p><p>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,” <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DUwHUzYEb6g/">KWISN posted.</a> </p><p>“No human deserves to be treated like this,” the group said. </p><p>“And today has been one of those days where it feels like nothing will ever be enough to stop this from happening.”</p><p>‘Get out of here’</p><p>“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.”</p><p>Another man watching the arrest calls the agent a fascist and a Nazi to his face. </p><p>“You’re a piece of s**t,” the man tells the agent.</p><p>“You’re a piece of s**t,” the agent replies. </p><p><p>Share this story by tapping the link below</p></p><p>Once he shuts the rear SUV door, he stands outside the driver’s side and points to onlookers.</p><p>“Get out of here or you’re going to be arrested as well,” the agent tells them. </p><p>The men agree to stand 25 feet back from him.</p><p>“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.</p><p>“You think I care,” the agent replies, holding his hands outstretched, palms up. </p><p>“You should care, if you had morality,” a bystander says. </p><p>“You threw him off his bike for no reason,” the other man says. </p><p>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. </p><p>“We have you on security cameras, he wasn’t resisting,” says a woman, who appears to also be recording the agent with her phone.</p><p>As the bike lands on its side, a man says, “They don’t care.”</p><p>Key West Newswire is reader-supported media</p><p>Thank you all for reading and subscribing. </p><p>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. </p><p>Right now, fewer than 7 percent of my subscriptions are paid. </p><p>If that doubles, I would be able to spend much more of my work week reporting and writing local news from Key West. </p><p>Some of you have asked if you could make one-time payments. Of course. </p><p>My<a target="_blank" href="https://account.venmo.com/u/Gwen-Filosa"> Venmo is @gwen-filosa</a>. I also have Zelle. </p><p>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. </p><p></p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Key West Newswire by Gwen Filosa at <a href="https://gwenfilosa.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">gwenfilosa.substack.com/subscribe</a>
Have a different question and can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our support team by sending us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Gwen Filosa, this weekly podcast features guests from the Florida Keys and beyond. Hear wild tales and unpredictable chats from Key West locals, interviews with the nation’s top musicians, comedians and writers.
Gwen Filosa Media Key West LLC <br/><br/><a href="https://gwenfilosa.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">gwenfilosa.substack.com</a>
This podcast updates daily.
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at hey@podengine.ai for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.