BIG PINE KEY, Fla. – A 28-year-old Sunrise man is facing multiple charges in the Florida Keys after deputies said he threatened to kill and battered three women and closed a dog in a suitcase.
Deputies arrested Steven Vincent Maltese on an arrest warrant Friday in connection with the incident, which authorities said happened Monday on Big Pine Key.
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According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a home in the 31000 block of Avenue C after the women reported that Maltese “threatened to kill them, choked one of them, pushed them and threw a coffee mug at them.”
He also “placed a dog in a suitcase with a cloth tie wrapped around its neck and closed the suitcase” and left before deputies arrived, MCSO spokesperson Adam Linhardt said.
While the dog wasn’t seriously hurt, one of the women had to be taken to Fisherman’s Hospital in Marathon for treatment, Linhardt said.
Maltese is facing a felony battery charge, along with misdemeanor battery, simple assault and animal cruelty charges.
He was not listed in Monroe County’s jail roster as of Friday afternoon.
Jail records show he’s scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.