In mixup, Florida deputies hold Santa Rosa man at gunpoint

What was supposed to be a vacation in the Florida Keys and Miami turned into a nightmare for a Santa Rosa man and his wife after deputies held him at gunpoint, mistaking him for a bank robber.

Armed with semiautomatic rifles, deputies rushed towards Michail Koutsouradis, 34, who at the time was standing outside a Wells Fargo branch in Key Largo on Friday, smoking a cigarette. Koutsouradis said he had been in the bank minutes earlier, complaining to staff about being put on hold for too long when he called to report mistakes they made on a money transfer to Greece. He said he pulled out his phone to show staff how long he had been put on hold and then walked outside. That’s when deputies showed up, demanded he get on the ground and cuffed him.

“They had four machine guns pointed at me,” said Koutsouradis, who owns two auto service shops in Santa Rosa. “A little mistake would have literally cost me my life.”

It was likely a bank employee who called 911 and reported a possible robbery, which later was determined to be unfounded, according to Florida news reports. The caller likely confused his cellphone for a gun, Koutsouradis said.

He said he was frustrated when he first went into the bank but remained calm. “I was upset but I wasn’t rude,” he said.

Koutsouradis, who is half Greek and half Iranian, feared it was racial profiling that led to the incident.

“I look pretty Middle Eastern,” he said. “I’m not sure it was racial profiling, but I don’t know why they would do this.”

The Key Largo bank was closed Saturday afternoon, and Wells Fargo officials did not immediately respond to calls and emails.

Koutsouradis’ wife, Nadia Alrawi, 37, who is eight months pregnant, had been waiting in the car, unaware that the man deputies were handcuffing was her husband. A bush was blocking her view, she said.

“All I heard was people yelling ‘Get on the ground,’” she recounted via phone on Saturday.

Afraid it was an active bank robbery, she ducked down in the car and attempted to call her husband to warn him not to exit the bank. It wasn’t until her husband sat up that she realized it was him.

“I recognized his red T-shirt,” she said. “I was freaking out. My heart was racing.”

The couple was in Florida, enjoying their last vacation before the arrival of their baby girl, who will be their first child. Alrawi said the ordeal left her shaken up and she had to go to a Miami hospital after she started to feel ill.

“You see all the things going on TV right now. … It was scary,” she said. “I was happy the next morning that he was lying next to me.”

Koutsouradis said he was pleased with the way deputies handled the situation. He said they were professional and treated him well despite the difficult situation they were in.

“They just did their job,” he said about the deputies, some of whom he took pictures with after the ordeal was over. “They were great people.”

A Monroe County sheriff’s spokeswoman declined to comment about the incident on Saturday, asking a reporter to call back on Monday during her work hours.

Koutsouradis credited the bank manager for attempting to defuse the situation. He said she ran outside to let deputies know he was a customer and that there had been a mistake.

However, he added, the bank could have avoided the whole situation had they immediately fixed the money transfer problems.

“Wells Fargo really dropped the ball so many (times),” said Koutsouradis, who plans to meet with a lawyer to discuss the incident. “This could have been prevented.”

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.