Man who allegedly shot at park rangers recently accused of pointing an AK-47 at his wife

David J. Neal, Bianca Padró Ocasio
·3 min read

The Palmetto Bay man accused of shooting at park rangers in Everglades National Park on Sunday had been a Miami-Dade County jail inmate seven days earlier.

Drew Sikes’ wife said he pointed an AK-47 at her during a dispute over money, the arrest report states.

That arrest occurred on March 7, but Sikes didn’t post $10,000 bond until March 21. Within just seven days, the 33-year-old went from bonding out of Miami-Dade County jail to being booked into federal holding Sunday with stops at Palmetto Bay and the Everglades in-between.

Sikes’ arraignment on the state charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, scheduled to be Monday at 9 a.m., has been rescheduled for April 9 at 9 a.m., according to the online docket. His initial appearance in federal court is expected to be Tuesday, according to the Justice Department.

Domestic dollar disputes

When cops arrived to the Palmetto Bay home of Sikes and his wife at about 10 p.m. on March 7, she said he brought automatic weapons into a “heated verbal dispute” over money when he “grabbed his AK-47 and pointed it at her, demanding she complete a contract in which she would provide (for) him financially.”

However, Sikes contended that he grabbed his AK-47 during the argument, but only to clean and oil it.

The docket shows the typical pretrial conditional stay away order for Sikes as regards his wife. It shows no attempt to remove Sikes’ guns under the state’s “red flag” law — which allow the police or a family member to use the courts to temporarily restrict access to guns for individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others. The measure was enacted after the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County.

Sunday in the park

On Sunday afternoon, the National Park Service said park rangers first attempted encounter with Sikes was a domestic violence investigation in Mahogany Hammock, although the nature of the investigation wasn’t made clear.

But Sikes already had left. By the time rangers found his empty vehicle on the main park road, they figured he was headed into the woods with at least one gun.

According to a federal affidavit, Sikes admitted to firing about 50 total rounds at the rangers from his AK-47, while they were on the main park around 6:45 p.m., about 20 miles from the Homestead entrance. He yelled at police “F--- yeah, come get me,” and “I want you guys to kill me,” as authorities gave him commands to surrender, the federal complaint alleges.

Miami-Dade police helped barricade the entrance to the park off State Road 9336 and subsequently took over the negotiations with Sikes, which FBI Special Agent Julio Fuentes said in the federal document lasted over an hour. Sikes was arrested at about 8:59 p.m. After giving himself up, he told authorities he left the AK-47 in the woods.

Among the charges he’s facing, Sikes is accused of attempting to commit murder or manslaughter of an officer of the United States and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence — both of which are federal crimes.

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