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). The FBI didnt have any idea who they were looking for but they did know to search for a black 1982 Monte Carlo based on the witness from the last robbery that took place on March 19th. (One piece of 3/4 AA fir plywood.) Request product info from top Ammunition . You need to pay for the officers killed and injured. The semi-automatic pistol chambered in 10mm was thought to have better stopping power than previously issued service weapons but also proved to be more difficult to control for the agents and as such the .40 S&W round became popular with law-enforcement due to its less aggressive recoil. 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. Benjamin P. Grogan FBI It was originally assumed that the agents had shot poorly and therefore allowed Platt and Matix to advance on them so effectively. It also illustrates the frequency of hand and arm injuries in gunfights and warns us to be ready for single-hand shooting and weapon manipulations. The Players Army buddies Michael Platt and William Matix had a lot in common. First was the matter of the weapons themselves. It is suspected that Matix and Platt knew they were being followed and that they subsequently began driving on side roads in an attempt to lose the trailing FBI vehicles. This simulates standard wall construction. We have better weapons today, but were still having a crisis in law enforcement of officers losing gunfights around cars, he said. Photo by Miami-Dade PD.jpg. A Bureau investigation into the fight completed just over one month later lays out each step of that day, with details down to every shot fired. Book details & editions. These shots from Mireles hit Platt on both feet during which time Matix regained consciousness and joined Platt inside the car. 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. Platt was shot in the chest before any FBI agent was seriously injured a better bullet wouldve likely killed him immediately. I had nothing to do with that project except observe. They are improvising.. A full, first-hand account by the man who ended the fight is available here. One-hundred and fifty shots were fired during the incident. Test 2: Light clothing at 20 yards. FBI agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove and the two bank robbery suspects were killed. Despite multiple injuries, including a shot to the lung by Doves 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol that would later be credited with the bandits ultimate death, Platt climbed out of his car, which was pinned between bureau Buicks and a pair of civilian vehicles, and continued to fire. They are full of holes. Paperback. It is an odd discrepancy though. Mireles also experienced auditory effects, with some sounds muffled (gunshots), some amplified (distracting sounds from the environment, like birds chirping), and some completely masked (the warning shouts from fellow agents). .45, .44 magnum. The test events conducted were as follows: Test 1: Bare gelatin at 10 feet, control test. The massive bleeding from his arm and his head wound almost killed him and made him lapse in and out of consciousness. Advancing on the car, he fired his pump-action shotgun at Platt five times, injuring his feet. The Monte Carlo was riddled by shotgun blasts as Agent Grogan returned fire at Matix, who first fired at his shotgun at the agents. If a law enforcement agency has a remote possibility of shooting around cars, it would be wiser to consider the heavier calibers. Both suspects were honorably discharged from the army with no apparent demerits on their records. Miami Shootout: With Pernell Roberts, Burke Byrnes, Robert Covarrubias, Rick Dean. (AP Photo/Bill Cooke) Related articles. 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. Despite the injuries, Platt continued to return fire with both his revolver and rifle and was struck several more times in the process. a shot to the lung by Dove's 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol that would later be credited with the bandit's ultimate death . The shootout transpired shortly after midnight when authorities detected a suspicious boat at sea, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Jeffrey Quiones told the Associated Press. Sadly, they arrived too late to have an influence on the outcome of the fight. The Protectors Podcast is hosted by Dr. Jason Piccolo, a 21-year federal agent, and military veteran. To Petty, the biggest takeaway from the Miami Shootout is that the incident didnt have to happen at all. The two robbery suspects, William Russell Matix and Michael Lee Platt were also killed. 4.13. Despite these robberies and murders going on for months and over $100,000 stolen (worth over $250,000 today), none of Platts nor Matixs spouses, tenants, or acquaintances ever suspected the men of any wrongdoing. Recovered FBI documents reveal four of the preceding robberies showing that these activities were not a one-off event but rather a perhaps pathological series of robberies/murders over the course of several months. 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. Mireles experienced a range of physiological effects during the pursuit and gunfight. What the FTU did was prepare tests of 9mm, 10mm, .38, .357, .380, and .45 caliber bullets under reproducible conditions to see how they performed. The firefight claimed the lives of Special Agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan. However, this did not stop Platt. Schwartzenberger, 43, had been with the FBI since 2005, and leaves behind a . Mireles did this unconsciously as an automatic habit that was the byproduct of disciplined training. Mireles then advanced to the drivers side door and pointed his revolver through the window and Shot Platt in the chest which bruised his spinal cord and ended the gunfight. Get FBI Updates Vault Home FBI Miami Shooting, April 11, 1986 . Mireles attempted to shoot both suspects but landed no hits with his remaining shotgun rounds. He also addresses the many what ifs that inevitably spring up when people who talk about such things discuss the potentialities of violent encounters since Miami Dade featured several of those. 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. Law enforcement sources say the men are . An event like this firefight sends out ripples in the pond that travel far, and officers and agency leaders need to account for this and provide help to all those affected not just the direct participants. This is an example of the wrong lessons being taken from such an incident, which Paul explains by backtracking to the 1970 Newhall shooting in Valencia, California. April 11, 1986, approx. 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. Shooting through car doors and front windshield glass was telling. 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. 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. I Made this collection for all Rockabilly and . document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Wow. . Youre responsible. Sign Up today for our FREE Newsletter and get the latest articles and news delivered right to your inbox. The Miami FBI Shootout - The Lost Tapes. In the end, two FBI agents and the bank robbers were dead, and . SHOT 2023: Safariland SafariVault Duty Holsters, SHOT 2023: Primary Weapons Systems BDE Suppressor, The Wonderful World of the Pistol Caliber AK, Bass Reeves: Deputy U.S. It was at this point that the shooting began between 8 agents and the 2 suspects. 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. Both of their wives died under suspicious circumstances, both seemed fairly normal to their Florida friends and neighbors, and neither had a criminal record. This page was last edited on 19 October 2020, at 11:01. Lexipol. Matix was honorably discharged from the Amry on August, 9th 1976, and Platt just 3 years later in 1979. The 1986 FBI Miami shootout between eight FBI agents and two serial bank robbers was the . The firefight claimed the lives of Special Agents Jerry L. Dove and Benjamin P. Grogan. Collectively Matix and Platt were armed with: A sketch of the crime scene (Sketch by FBI). Miami Shooting 4-11-86 Part 2 of 11 View. Five more FBI men were wounded in the shootout Friday, April 11, 1986 on a residential street in Kendall just south of the Sunniland Shopping Center. Platt then caught sight of Agent Mireles who was running across the street to join the gunfight. The FBI Training Division at Quantico reviewed the Firearms Training Unit (FTU) curriculum, and the FTU started to add more combat shooting courses: Moving and shooting, shooting one-handed, reloading one-handed, shooting with your weak hand, shooting at moving targets, shooting from cars, and shooting at smaller targets. A hard-front sight focus is important when precision fire is required, and many officers have reported achieving this in gunfights and making good hits. The Miami Shootout, he says, schooled the law enforcement community on how little they understood about shooting in and around vehicles. However if you read the forensic analysis with autopsy photos and crime scene photos, read the agent's reports (they are on the FBI's website as a freedom-of-information disclosure) and if you . The FBIs firepower, in blue, wouldve been much greater had the entire collection of agents on area stakeouts that day arrived at the shootout. 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. But the higher the crash safety rating, the better the vehicle is going to perform.. When the chase abruptly terminated in a vehicle crash and the gunfight began, responding FBI and Metro-Dade PD units didnt know where to find their brothers, and it took several valuable minutes for them to locate the scene. That 158-grain hollow point is a good round if it hits the person but it had minimal penetration.. The FBI on Wednesday named the man who shot five agents, killing two, as they tried to execute a search . A Trans Am can be seen to the left (Photo FBI). Now the couple hopes to encourage others to consider the gift of kidney donation. Mireles, who has recently published his own book, Five Minutes that Changed the Bureau, detailing the day, agrees. Losers. Save my name and email to use for future comments. The shooting ended with Platt killing two agents and wounding five agents. See: Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual: To what extent does federal law preempt state law regarding public inspection of records?. Platt's infamy was assured on April 11, 1986, when an eight-man team of federal agents took down Platt and William Russell Matix in what became known as the Miami FBI shootout. A bullet-proof vest can be seen in the lower right corner of the photo, near blood-stained pavement at the foot of officer. Two dead agents and a very public law enforcement safety failure was more than enough inspiration for the FBI to take a hard look at exactly what their agents carry on the street. Shootings like the Miami Dade FBI shootout are interesting to study to get a glimpse into the doctrines and methods used by law enforcement throughout the history of our country. Hes grateful for the opportunity to serve and learn from the men and women of law enforcement. 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. 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. . Editor's Note: On April 11, 1986, in Miami, Florida, eight FBI agents and two bank robbers engaged in a five-minute gunfight. But on April 11 . Popular content related to Johnny Rebel & Country music. Both Platt and Matix then approached the wounded guard and executed him with a military-type .223 caliber shoulder weapon with witnesses describing either an AR-15 or Mini-14 style rifle, March 19th, 1986 Platt and Matix robbed the BarnettBank, 13593 South, Smith & Wesson Model 3000 12-Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun (#6 shot allegedly used). Thanks! 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. Agent McNeill continued to return fire with his service revolver and hit Matix in both the head and neck and was rendered unconscious temporarily. 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. Copyright 2023 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. Keeping his head, he devised a way to fire and reload the shotgun by resting it on the bumper of a car and reloading it with the gun braced between his knees. Theres a saying in the Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11, he said. 00:00:00 . By 1989, the Bureau had also purchased enough shotguns and submachine guns to arm one in two agents, he said. Obviously these calibers required large frame weapons. While it can be disputed how much of this training contributed to the results of the shootout, what can be said is that despite their superior numbers, Platt and Matix were able to square off against the 8 agents for 5 minutes before being taken down. 7, except the shot was fired from directly in front of the car. Miami Shootout Crime Scene (Photo: By Miami-Dade Police Department) Upon autopsy of Michael Platt, forensics showed that despite being shot through the chest with a 9mm, the bullet stopped just short of the heart. But of at least equal importance is how the shootout changed the FBI training scene. They werent looking for a gunfight, particularly not one of the deadliest days in the FBIs history. Agent Doves pistol, covered in blood and photographed at the scene, was shot through the center of the slide, locking the slide to the rear. (FBI), If I could change something Id change that, Mireles said. 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. architecture/construction firm) retains copyright rights to the image unless the contract with the agency says otherwise. 1986. All rights reserved. On autopsy, they evacuated more than 1400 cc of blood from Platt's chest. 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