Police Safely End Machete Standoff
Key West Police safely ended a three and a half hour standoff with an armed man on Whitehead Street Tuesday night. The incident began around 7:30 p.m. with a 911 call of involving a sexual battery in an apartment complex on Truman Avenue. Several witnesses told officers that a man later identified as Mike McKelva, 55, entered several apartments and battered two women. Neighbors heard screaming and ran the suspect out of the complex.
McKelva ran into a nearby residence and armed himself with a machete, then went to the home of Kent and Lisa Lefner. According to these witnesses, McKelva knocked on the door. Kent Lefner recognized McKelva as someone who had worked on his house in the past, and he opened the door. According to Lefner, the armed man immediately began swinging the machete at him, cutting him. Then McKelva reportedly ran out the back door, telling the witnesses that he was going to kill himself.
After that, McKelva barricaded himself inside a residence at 921 Whitehead Street.
The Key West Police Department’s Special Response Team and the department’s Negotiation Team worked to get McKelva safely in custody. During the standoff, McKelva broke several of the residence windows.
Just before midnight, McKelva surrendered himself to police. He had multiple self-inflicted lacerations on his neck and torso. He was deemed a trauma alert by medical staff and was flown to Jackson Memorial for treatment.
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