Plus this would mark the car as a target for a break-in to take the weapon. Mireles reported that he and his fellow agents felt a sense of survivor guilt and questioned whether they could have done something different or better that would have changed the outcome and saved their friends. Paul reduces the FBIs performance in the shootout to two major failures, which I will not reveal because I believe Pauls buildup is necessary for the lessons to be realized. During the firefight, FBI Special Agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan were killed, while five other agents were wounded. If a law enforcement agency has a remote possibility of shooting around cars, it would be wiser to consider the heavier calibers. Although Mireles had his badge displayed in the middle of his chest, the plain clothes worn by him and his fellow agents made it more difficult for responding patrol officers from Metro-Dade PD to identify the agents as law enforcement. After a furious four-minute shootout in which 145 total rounds were fired, the two bad guys were killed, but so were two agents, while the others were all wounded. A bullet-proof vest can be seen in the lower right corner of the photo, near blood-stained pavement at the foot of officer. With his buddy knocked out, he maneuvered to the side of a nearby civilian Cutlass, and fired using his revolver before he dropped it after taking a hit through the arm. These two had some great parents. I can't seem to find any photos of the perpetrators. He underwent training based on the incident and later taught that same course. (FBI). The FBI also researched, designed, and procured gun racks for all these new long weapons. The firefight claimed the lives of Special Agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan. Make that a crowded driveway: by the end, the fight involved two bad guys with two .357 Magnum revolvers, a Ruger Mini-14, and a shotgun, plus eight good guys with five revolvers, three pistols, and two shotguns. It wasnt until 2015, almost 20 years later, that ballistic technology had advanced enough to warrant the FBIs return to the 9mm. Other firearms that were not present at the shooting were part of the stakeout operation and in the vehicles of other FBI agents. One of those changes, as I mentioned earlier, was the move to the .40 S&W cartridge. Yet there are many other important lessons to learn from the fight. Circumstances can make it extremely difficult for officers to identify friend and foe in the chaos of an engagement, but every officer must know that they have positively identified their target as a threat before pulling the trigger. Schwartzenberger, 43, had been with the FBI since 2005, and leaves behind a . Paul notes that law enforcement firearms selection and training doesnt deviate much, but usually, every ten to twenty years will see a highly publicized incident, usually where the police get the short end, that drastically changes the direction. All rights reserved. FBI Fun and Games! CMG West, LLC The FBI began to investigate the string of robberies that were being committed in Dade county and sent out a total of 14 FBI Agents in 11 vehicles in order to stake out and search for the robbery suspects. You will be advised by the FBI as _to the releasability of this information following our consultation with the other agencyes!. Mireles points out that his wife, Liz, and his soon-to-be-born children were key to his successful recovery. The gunfight happened before the advent of TECC knowledge, procedures and training, and the lifesaving acceptance of tourniquets as a first line of defense against hemorrhage. But the higher the crash safety rating, the better the vehicle is going to perform.. October 10th, 1985 A Wells Fargo Armored Car serving a Winn Dixie was assaulted leaving one guard wounded by 12 gauge 00 buckshot while the assailant from the vehicle fired a handgun and shoulder-fired weapons from the getaway vehicle. Criticism has been leveled at the FBI for not equipping all the agents with protective ballistic vests despite the fact that they knew they were going after Dade county suspects who were always armed during their heists. However, this consensus caused its own problems. The FTU (Firearms Training Unit) gathered national experts on wound ballistics: military experts, homicide investigators, and medical examiners. withheld for the following reasonlslz El For your information: _ _ _ t _, SA Doves Smith & Wesson 459 service pistol (Photo by FBI). Thanks! Another similar criticism of the situation is that none of the participating agents had rifles. This led the FBI transition from revolvers to high capacity pistols. The Miami Shootout, he says, schooled the law enforcement community on how little they understood about shooting in and around vehicles. Therein is the problem! Suspects. Over the years, the Bureau went through several different gun manufacturers assessing which gun platform best served the FBIs needs. You teach hate, this is what you get. FBI cars are not marked, so you cant have a shotgun racked in the front seat area without drawing attention to the car. MIAMI (AP) _ The wife of one of the robbery suspects slain in a shootout with FBI agents was pressured by her husband into sleeping with his buddy, and told a friend the day before she died that she had been threatened with death, her attorney says. You need to pay for the officers killed and injured. . (WGNO) A man who claims he was running from police was rescued from a tree and then arrested in St. Charles Parish. The Monte Carlo was riddled by shotgun blasts as Agent Grogan returned fire at Matix, who first fired at his shotgun at the agents. Video appears to show plane rolling on its side before crash in Nepal. Theres a reason, he says, 83 percent of all officers who are killed in the line of duty during self-initiated activities are killed in or around cars: tactics matter. But thats what they got. Apr 10, 2019. Get the 76th edition of the World's Greatest Gun Book. Miami Dade has been meticulously documented, but most people probably havent been exposed to the real details that explain why things went the way they did. Mireles, who has recently published his own book, Five Minutes that Changed the Bureau, detailing the day, agrees. Request product info from top Ammunition . Test 8: Automobile glass at 20 yards. With one arm hopelessly damaged, Mireles had to find a way to operate his pump-action shotgun single-handed, so he could stop the deadly threat. The revolvers were limited to six rounds, while the pistols had 14-round magazines. Welcome to Autopsyfiles.org - Home Page - Autopsy Reports of . Honestly, it never had to happen. . A revolver normally carries six bullets. SCSA Competitor The 1986 Miami FBI shootout happened almost 33 years ago in a formerly unincorporated region of Miami-Dade which is now Pinecrest. All structured data from the file namespace is available under the. FBI Miami Shooting, April 11, 1986 Miami Shooting 4-11-86 Part 1 of 11 View. Your email address will not be published. Meanwhile, Platt went to town with his Ruger Mini-14 firing so fast that one agent later told a TV reporter that he thought Platt was shooting a fully automatic rifle. 00:00. WILL LESTER April 10, 1987 GMT. It just wasnt in the thought, he said. The danger of a blue-on-blue shooting spiked dramatically when the felons attempted to escape in an FBI car with its blue light flashing on the dash, because an outsider could have easily assumed they were officers under attack, not cop killers stealing a police car. Platt was shot in the chest before any FBI agent was seriously injured a better bullet wouldve likely killed him immediately. (720 500 pixels, file size: 178 KB, MIME type: Crime_scene_photo_of_the_FBI_Miami_shootout,_showing_suspect_and_agents'_vehicles_and_battle_debris._Photo_by_Miami-Dade_PD.jpg, http://images.policemag.com/articles/L-FBI-Miami-Shootout.jpg. On April 11, 1986, FBI Special Agent Ed Mireles and seven of his fellow agents fought against two heavily armed felons in a desperate battle in an unincorporated part of Miami, Florida. Let us know what topics you would be interested: 203 Performance on Demand Milspec Mojo. You've been successfully signed up for the Police1 Careers. RECOILtv SHOT Show 2020: Blackwater Ammunition - Iron Horse Firearms Sentry 12, Rich Grassi Explores Clinton-era Report on Gun Violence. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. The FTU also had to take into consideration employees with small hands, so there had to be a balance between caliber and the size of the pistol frame. After knocking off a string of banks over several months and attempting a few armored car heists, they eventually made a mistake. It was hoped that these experts could come to a consensus as to how best to stop a human target.. Title: Autopsyfiles.org - William Matix Autopsy Report Subject: Autopsyfiles.org - William Matix Autopsy Report Keywords: Autopsyfiles.org, william matix; michael lee . With the exception of minor wounds to SA Manauzzi by shotgun pellets, all serious wounds inflicted on FBI personnel were caused by Platt firing a Ruger Mini-14 .223-caliber rifle. The first hit of the gunfight supposedly came from Special Agent (SA) Grogan who struck Matix in the forearm as the latter leaned out of the vehicle to fire his shotgun at Grogan and SA Dove. Nearly 34 years ago on April 11th, 1986 at 9:30am eastern, one of the most infamous shootouts in the history of the United States and the FBI took place in an unincorporated part of Dade County Florida. Thats when Mireles, who was seriously wounded in the left arm early on, saw his chance. You dont have to have aggressive firepower brought to bear in every situation, but we want to have it available and readily available for a situation such as the Miami incident, John Otto, acting director of the FBI at the time, said in a 1987 news documentary on the shootout. The Miami Shootout, as the now notorious event has come to be known, demonstrated with lethal accuracy just how behind the weapons and tactics curve the FBI was in 1986. . Agents on the scene had 12-gauge shotguns, Smith & Wesson Model 459 9mm pistols, and Smith & Wesson Military and Police .357 Magnum revolvers shooting .38 Special +P. It provides a consistent and reliable testing material for ballistics testing. At least one switched to a secondary weapon. Information provided by Find-A-Grave Member. 9 a.m.: A squad of more than a dozen FBI agents in 11 cars are about to conduct a stakeout of banks along South Dixie Highway. Savage Arms 1911: Revolutionary Reliability. Test 7: Automobile glass at 10 feet. In the end, two FBI agents and the bank robbers were dead, and . 7, except the shot was fired from directly in front of the car. 15 ratings3 reviews. Photo: Miami-Dade PD. To repeat, bullet size does matter when trying to stop a large land mammal like a human being. Agent Edmundo Mireles red jacket and shotgun as well as blood from the agents and perps were left behind on the scene when the shootout was over. Pauls discussion of the lessons learned from that shooting, and the training they inspired, are very interesting and pertinent to the Miami Dade incident sixteen years later. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Wow. Despite life-threatening injuries, he managed to move offensively and terminate the lethal threat, while fighting off an overwhelming desire to surrender to the fatigue that was overcoming his body and mind. Still taking fire, Platt and Matix, who at some point had come to, jumped in Grogan and Doves Buick, ready to flee. This simulates the thinnest portion of an automobile door. Select the option or tab named Internet Options (Internet Explorer), Options (Firefox), Preferences (Safari) or Settings (Chrome). Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. Although Mireles was under significant stress and hovering on the edge of bleeding out, he holstered his revolver as directed. Both men had no criminal record before their crime spree which began with a single murder and robbery on October 4th, 1985 where young Emilio Briel was killed by the two men at a quarry at the edge of the Everglades that was used for target practice. Around 9:30 am, FBI Agents Grogan and Dove spotted the Monte Carlo and began to follow it. Miami Shootout, with Ed Mireles Jr., FBI Agent (ret) Ed Mireles Jr., retired FBI, joined The Protectors Podcast to talk about his career, including his recovery from being seriously wounded in one of the most famous shootouts in U.S. history. In some corners of the law enforcement training world, theres a belief that stress-induced physiological changes make it impossible to focus on your front sight in a gunfight. On the morning of April 11, 198625 years ago todayone of the deadliest and most violent shoot-outs in FBI history unfolded . There was no vehicle material taught by the FBI, and no vehicle material taught by anyone. A Trans Am can be seen to the left (Photo FBI). And although the gunfight has now been parsed, dissected, and examined in law enforcement classrooms for decades, one overwhelming truth emerges: It never really had to happen to begin with. An officer who is experiencing a strong physiological response to stress may have a hard time moving from a target focus to a front sight focus, but if he can gain his composure, it will enhance his ability to use his sights and deliver shots with precision, as Mireles did. 2023 Recoil Magazine I thank SA (Ret.) Semi-automatic pistols at that time could carry anywhere from eight to fifteen bullets. A series of two other unmarked bureau Buicks joined the low-speed tail as it meandered for two minutes a few blocks each way. Firearm Discussion and Resources from AR-15, AK-47, Handguns and more! (Drivers license photos). Law enforcement sources say the men are . The FBI cornered the men on a suburban street south of Miami and engaged them in a bloody shootout that lasted morethan 10 minutes as motorists blundered through the line of fire but escaped injury. We have better weapons today, but were still having a crisis in law enforcement of officers losing gunfights around cars, he said. Keeping in mind that the Wound Ballistics Workshop concluded that size does matter, and the ballistics testing demonstrated that shooting through barriers affects bullet performance, the FTU selected the .40 caliber round as the optimum service round to be carried by FBI agents. If the officers had decided to tail Platt and Matix instead of sicking three Buicks on them, for example, a gunfight may have been avoided. Paul recreates several of the situations faced and shots taken by the agents. Fortunately, firearms expert Paul Harrell has been exposed to it in ways the vast majority of us have not. When he made his last-ditch charge of the felons position to finally end the fight, he utilized available cover and concealment as he approached, enhancing his chances for success. This article is within the scope of WikiProject Death, . Large caliber handgun rounds were .357 magnum. As they attempted to keep up, the agents in the lead car became task saturated with monitoring the suspects actions, evaluating the terrain and formulating a takedown plan. Twice (once in the main text and once in the firepower photo caption), the article notes the agents had "five revolvers," yet the photo poses *six* revolvers in FBI firepower. Crime_scene_photo_of_the_FBI_Miami_shootout,_showing_suspect_and_agents'_vehicles_and_battle_debris._Photo_by_Miami-Dade_PD.jpg (720 500 pixels, file size: 178 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg), http://www.policemag.com/articles/photos/2061/5-gunfights-that-changed-law-enforcement/2722.aspx, Deutsch English espaol franais italiano portugus portugus do Brasil sicilianu +/. The stocky, former Marine is pushed out of the hospital in a wheelchair by a nurse, his left . Buy, Sell, and Trade your Firearms and Gear. If you fired a bullet weighing 150 grains, what came out the other end was a bullet weighing 75 grains or less. The FBI also authorized agents to purchase their own assault rifles for use on duty. Sep 20, 2018 - Explore MT Randolph's board "EOW 4-11-86", followed by 368 people on Pinterest. Five-Minute Event, 30-Year Analysis In the immediate aftermath, one fact was glaringly clear: the Miami Shootout didnt go well. Hes a National Rifle Association (NRA) Law Enforcement Division-certified firearms instructor, senior editor at RevolverGuy.com, and has been a featured guest on the Excellence In Training Academy and American Warrior Society podcasts, as well as several radio and television programs. Mike is an Honor Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, a graduate of the US Army Airborne School, and a retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with over 26 years of service. The hardware only gets you so far. Im a subscriber to Pauls channel and have a deep respect for the knowledge he brings to the table. Six shots were fired at the back of the vehicle with two rounds missing and three rounds striking Matix in the head and killing him. On April 11, Matix and Platt died on a suburban Miami street in the bloodiest shootout in FBI history, leaving two agents dead and another five wounded. Get Your Copy of FBI Miami Firefight: Five Minutes that Changed the Bureau at GunDigestStore.com. Required fields are marked *. Get FBI Updates Vault Home FBI Miami Shooting, April 11, 1986 . Editor's Note: On April 11, 1986, in Miami, Florida, eight FBI agents and two bank robbers engaged in a five-minute gunfight. (T-shirt, flannel shirt, 10 oz. Florida's Constitution and its statutes do not permit any agency to claim copyright for "public records" unless authorized to do so by law. And while it explicitly doesnt assign blame this document contains neither recommendations or conclusions of the FBI it does over and over again lay out the agents key problem: firepower. a shot to the lung by Dove's 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol that would later be credited with the bandit's ultimate death . The 1986 FBI Miami shootout occurred on April 11, 1986, in Miami-Dade County, Florida, U.S. (the specific area was incorporated as Pinecrest in 1996), when a small group of field agents for the FBI attempted to apprehend William Russell Matix and Michael Lee Platt, who were suspected of committing a series of violent crimes in and around the Miami metropolitan area. The FBI designed a gun rack that was secure and out of sight yet still accessible to the agents in the front seat. That may happen for some officers experiencing high levels of sympathetic nervous system arousal, but it wasnt Ed Mireles experience. Instead, Matix and Platts weapons, in orange, went against agents five revolvers, three pistols, and two shotguns. April 11, 1986, approx. Personal tools Log in. Their courage, tenacity and fighting spirit is a powerful example for all who wear the badge, and Im grateful to help share the lessons from their experience. It was the need to reload that proved particularly fatal, analysts note. Updated: Jan 15, 2023 / 10:34 PM EST. Mireles reports that discussing the shooting and its lasting emotional and physical effects with the other agents who were there was a great help. As Platt was attempting to start the now stolen FBI vehicle, agent Mireles drew his Smith & Wesson Model 686 revolver and advanced down the street towards Matix and Platt. At a recent presentation for armed citizens and law enforcement, Mireles shared some from his personal experience with the group that included the following: The felons recognized they were being followed by the FBI and tried to evade them by making a series of turns during the vehicle chase prior to the shooting. Police1 is revolutionizing the way the law enforcement community This may be called Tools or use an icon like the cog. He also shot Hanlon in the groin as he lay nearby. One-hundred and fifty shots were fired during the incident. On April 11, 1986 eight FBI agents engaged in a lead slinging war with two criminals, and despite outnumbering the . Cars and Cover Perhaps no one is more familiar with that impact than Petty. The pair targeted another armored car in January 1986, shooting a guard with a shotgun and a Ruger Mini-14. The infamous 1986 Miami Shootout forever changed law enforcement training, equipment and tactics. The FBI Miami shootout was a watershed event for American police thats perhaps best known for its influence on the development of better ammunition for law enforcement. Is there a particular reason for this? Other agents elsewhere on the stakeout had more firepower, but they didnt get there in time, with one agent missing the initial radio call because he had stopped to pee. In short, in Miami, in 1986, the FBI had a shootout with two bad guys and it was the biggest firefight in the FBI's recent history. The First Encounter: Platt and Matix Inside the . The photo shows all the guns of all the agents patrolling Miami looking for the robbers, not just the guns of the agents involved in the shootout. All Rights Reserved. One-hundred and fifty shots were fired during the incident. It was the Miami Dade shootout that was the impetus for the FBI selecting the Smith & Wesson 1076 as their new service weapon. In many ways, Mireles battle was just beginning after the last shots were fired. In the end, approximately 145 shots were fired in just under 5 minutes, four were dead, and five were injured with only one agent escaping unscathed by the intense street combat (Agent Risner). One of the results was the new .40 Smith & Wesson round, which Glock quickly incorporated into a new semi-automatic pistolthe Glock 22. The technique came to him in the moment due to a superior mindset that was focused on problem solving and getting the job done, no matter the difficulty. 2d 871 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) (Findlaw)held that the Collier County Property Appraiser could not require commercial users to enter into a licensing agreement, holding that "[the agency] has no authority to assert copyright protection in the GIS maps, which are public records.". Forensic Analysis of the April 11, 1986, FBI Firefight is truly a magnificent achievement, with never-before seen full color crime scene and autopsy photos, as well as painstakingly detailed graphic illustrations of not only the Miami killing field, but the wounds Platt and Matix received. And they were right. (Two pieces of 20-gauge hot-rolled steel spaced 3 apart). Wow. Michael Platt, armed with a stolen Ruger Mini-14, accompanied by William Matix, murdered Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove, crippled for life Edmundo Mireles, John "Jake" Hanlon and Gordon McNeill and wounded Gilbert Orrantia and Richard Manauzzi, all of the FBI. A larger handgun bullet caused larger wounds, which in turn generally led to rapid, faster bleeding. No money was stolen, and the wounded guard later died of his injuries. Despite his severe injuries, Mireles made effective use of cover as he engaged the felons with his shotgun from a prone and sitting position. Later in 1988, the FBI hosted the Wound Ballistics Seminar/Workshop. Very early in the Miami gun battle, (Agent) Jerry Dove fired a bullet that stopped about two inches short of (bank robber Michael) Platt's heart. But of at least equal importance is how the shootout changed the FBI training scene. Firearm Discussion and Resources from AR-15, AK-47, Handguns and more! The firefight claimed the lives of Special Agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan. There was also an increase in car stop training. As Grogan and Dove struggled with a malfunctioning pistol, Platt leaned over their car and killed them both; a shot to the chest for Grogan and two shots to the head for Dove. architecture/construction firm) retains copyright rights to the image unless the contract with the agency says otherwise. I had nothing to do with that project except observe. The event sparked near-immediate changes to how the Bureau arms and trains every agent from the desk guys to SWAT agents, with local police forces nationwide following their lead. 02:14. April 20, 2011. Literally dying from their injuries, they critically wounded several agents . Another issue was hollow point bullets. Save my name and email to use for future comments. Jerrys shot went through Platts right arm, severing his brachial artery, moving up and into the left side of his chest, traversing through his right lung, and stopping about two inches from his heart. A person with a revolver has to reload after shooting six times. It took years before Mireles was finally able to forgive himself, accept the fact that he had done all that was humanly possible and realize that his lost friends would understand that. 1986. These shots collapsed Platts right long and filled his chest cavity with over a liter of blood this is the gunshot that was attributed to his eventual death. Hanlon was hit in the arm while trying to reload, before getting hit a second time and temporarily paralyzed. (One piece of 3/4 AA fir plywood.) A person with fifteen-round magazines can keep fighting. Acting on a hunch, they picked this particular day to stage a bank stakeout, watching for a pair of unidentified bad guys in a stolen Monte Carlo on the off chance theyd show up. Theres a saying in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11, he said. These tests eliminated the 9mm and .38 Special. A Wells Fargo armored car that would have been similar to the one Matix and Platt assaulted (Photo Geof Payne). All rights reserved. Crime scene photo of the infamous FBI Miami shootout, showing suspect and agents' vehicles and battle debris. That 158-grain hollow point is a good round if it hits the person but it had minimal penetration.. Matix and Platt carried superior armament to the FBI agents and also had military arms training. It has been a long time since I retired, so maybe bullet manufactures have improved their rounds to surpass the original test results. Today well be breaking down the Miami-Dade Shootout. Agents Grogan, Hanlon, and Dove were in the midst of reloading their firearms and were unaware of Platt who had begun advancing on their position behind their vehicle. In that regard, rifles are better than handguns because rifles fire larger caliber rounds at higher velocity. Unless agents were part of a SWAT unit, they simply werent authorized to carry semiautomatic weapons, Mireles said. As Matix and Platt cruised by one of the banks, Special Agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove spotted and followed the stolen Monte Carlo, first north, then east, then south. Platt opened fire and hit Mireles in his left forearm disabling it. These shots from Mireles hit Platt on both feet during which time Matix regained consciousness and joined Platt inside the car. Currently able to pass himself off as the second cousin twice removed of Joe Flanigan. But analysis and examination aside, in the end Mireles believes it ultimately came down to one key component that no improved training or weapons couldve changed: luck. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Lexipol. Note: Works that are considered "public records" but were not created by a state or municipal government agency may be copyrighted by their author; the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution prevents state law from overriding the author's right to copyright protection that is granted by federal law. His experience provides a critical lesson for todays officers to take advantage of TECC training opportunities, and to carry a suitable individual first aid kit (IFAK) on duty. By 9:45 a.m. two bank robbers and two agents were dead, five agents had been seriously injured, and everything the FBI knew about arming agents and shooting in and around cars was called into question. Other robberies in the string had occurred on Friday mornings, and since the last haul for these guys had been small, only about $8,000 according to those involved, agents guessed theyd hit again soon.

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