(Music)

Dennis Collins to Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins We tell real stories about real cops.

Dennis Collins We expose the fake news about the police

Dennis Collins and we bring you the real truth.

Dennis Collins This podcast is brought to you by

Dennis Collins Citizens Behind the Badge, the leading

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Dennis Collins Please check out our website at

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Dennis Collins see how you can get involved.

Dennis Collins I'm your host, Dennis Collins.

Dennis Collins I'm a proud law enforcement father.

Dennis Collins I'm the founding director

Dennis Collins of Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins And as always, I'm joined by my co-host

Dennis Collins Bill Erferth and Craig Floyd.

Dennis Collins If you see a smile on Erferth's face, you

Dennis Collins will know it's because he is still

Dennis Collins basking in the glory of his beloved

Dennis Collins Florida Panthers winning a

Dennis Collins second Stanley Cup Championship.

Dennis Collins Billy, are you still smiling?

Dennis Collins Are you still happy?

Bill Erfurth I am still partying and

Bill Erfurth dancing in the streets.

Dennis Collins As well, you should.

Dennis Collins Although, unfortunately, in their

Dennis Collins celebration, as you know,

Dennis Collins they damaged the Stanley Cup.

Dennis Collins That could be costly.

Bill Erfurth That's happened every year.

Bill Erfurth They just fix it right up.

Dennis Collins They fix it right up.

Dennis Collins Bill is a decorated 26 year veteran of

Dennis Collins the Miami-Dade Police Department, now the

Dennis Collins Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.

Dennis Collins How about that?

Dennis Collins They finally have a sheriff there.

Dennis Collins And he is a founding director

Dennis Collins of Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins As always, Bill, you always like to

Dennis Collins remind our viewers and listeners, I like

Dennis Collins the way you do this.

Dennis Collins Tell our listeners and viewers how they

Dennis Collins can support our Heroes

Dennis Collins Behind the Badge podcast.

Bill Erfurth All right.

Bill Erfurth So we absolutely want everybody to watch

Bill Erfurth this, of course, and go to your podcast

Bill Erfurth favorite spot and be sure and like us,

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Bill Erfurth And let's let's get everybody involved.

Bill Erfurth That way you will be the first to know

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Dennis Collins So if you hear anything you like today or

Dennis Collins in any of our episodes,

Dennis Collins please subscribe, like and follow.

Dennis Collins We would appreciate it.

Dennis Collins Craig Floyd.

Dennis Collins Craig Floyd is our founder.

Dennis Collins He is our president and CEO

Dennis Collins of Citizens Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins But you probably know Craig best as the

Dennis Collins founder and chairman emeritus of the

Dennis Collins National Law Enforcement Officers

Dennis Collins Memorial and the

Dennis Collins museum in Washington, D.C.

Dennis Collins A few weeks ago, Craig was awarded the

Dennis Collins highest honor that can be earned from the

Dennis Collins National Law Enforcement Officers

Dennis Collins Memorial, the prestigious John Ashcroft

Dennis Collins Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dennis Collins I was proud to be in D.C.

Dennis Collins at the awarding of this.

Dennis Collins Craig, it's so well deserved.

Dennis Collins In fact, if you haven't already heard, we

Dennis Collins did a whole episode on Craig and how the

Dennis Collins law enforcement

Dennis Collins memorial became a reality.

Dennis Collins It's a fascinating story.

Dennis Collins You got to go to it.

Dennis Collins Craig, again,

Dennis Collins congratulations on the award.

Dennis Collins Congratulations for your lifetime of

Dennis Collins service to law enforcement.

Dennis Collins And let's have another good show today.

Craig Floyd It's my personal pleasure.

Craig Floyd You know that.

Craig Floyd And it was so great to have you there for

Craig Floyd that award ceremony.

Craig Floyd And today we have such a special guest.

Craig Floyd This is somebody who I'm being reunited

Craig Floyd with after 34 years.

Craig Floyd He was there with us, a featured speaker

Craig Floyd when we dedicated the National Law

Craig Floyd Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Craig Floyd And I'm so proud that he agreed to join

Craig Floyd us here today on Heroes

Craig Floyd Behind the Badge podcast.

Craig Floyd So I'll let you do the introductions, but

Craig Floyd can't wait to get into it

Craig Floyd with him.

Dennis Collins Let's give this gentleman a proper

Dennis Collins introduction he so richly deserves.

Dennis Collins Ed Morales, Ed Morales, Jr., a retired

Dennis Collins FBI special agent, a native of Texas, a

Dennis Collins United States Marine

Dennis Collins veteran, two tours in Vietnam.

Dennis Collins He joined the FBI in

Dennis Collins September of 1979 and 1985.

Dennis Collins He transferred to the Miami field office

Dennis Collins law enforcement family.

Dennis Collins He and his wife both served 25 years and

Dennis Collins retired from the FBI, author of two

Dennis Collins books, FBI, Miami Firefight, Five Minutes

Dennis Collins That Changed the Bureau and Hostage

Dennis Collins co-written with his wife, Liz, and a new

Dennis Collins book coming out late this year that I

Dennis Collins hope we'll talk about during our time

Dennis Collins together, named I

Dennis Collins think I got it right, Lalo.

Dennis Collins Ed's that was his undercover name.

Dennis Collins Don't tell anybody.

Dennis Collins Secret, secret compilation of undercover

Dennis Collins cases during his FBI career.

Dennis Collins As with most of our guests who have

Dennis Collins served distinguished law enforcement

Dennis Collins careers, many achievements, notable

Dennis Collins accomplishments for decades.

Dennis Collins There's one day that

Dennis Collins changes their lives forever.

Dennis Collins April 11th, 1986, 845 a.m., 14 FBI agents

Dennis Collins were preparing to conduct a rolling

Dennis Collins stakeout looking for two ruthless,

Dennis Collins violent criminals,

Dennis Collins bank robbers, murderers.

Dennis Collins They were called the Unknown Gang.

Dennis Collins They were running rampant up and down US

Dennis Collins one in South Dade County, Florida,

Dennis Collins especially on Fridays.

Dennis Collins But Morellus and his and seven of his

Dennis Collins fellow agents made contact with these bad

Dennis Collins guys on Southwest 82nd Avenue in Dade

Dennis Collins County in the Dade

Dennis Collins County village of Pinecrest.

Dennis Collins What followed would be one of the most

Dennis Collins dramatic and deadly

Dennis Collins encounters in FBI history.

Dennis Collins Morellus was the first agent ever to be

Dennis Collins honored with the FBI medal

Dennis Collins of valor on April 10th, 1990.

Dennis Collins And October 7th on October 7 1986, the

Dennis Collins IACP police officer of the

Dennis Collins year award to Ed Morellus.

Dennis Collins This story has been

Dennis Collins told many, many times.

Dennis Collins But it's important that we tell it again

Dennis Collins and ask Ed to tell it in his own words,

Dennis Collins so we never, ever,

Dennis Collins ever forget our heroes.

Dennis Collins Ed, a warm welcome to

Dennis Collins heroes behind the badge.

Dennis Collins We are delighted to

Dennis Collins have you as our guest.

Ed Mireles Thank you, Dennis.

Ed Mireles It's a pleasure to be here.

Ed Mireles And it's a pleasure to reconnect with

Ed Mireles Craig again, after 34 years.

Ed Mireles Yes, indeed.

Ed Mireles Great, great deal.

Dennis Collins That is great.

Dennis Collins Well, I feel a little connection.

Dennis Collins I was the general manager of three radio

Dennis Collins stations in Miami at

Dennis Collins the time of this incident.

Dennis Collins And my I think I was telling you before

Dennis Collins we started, the news director called me

Dennis Collins into around nine o'clock that morning, he

Dennis Collins says, did you're not going to believe

Dennis Collins what's going on down in South Dade.

Dennis Collins And of course, the scanners were all lit

Dennis Collins up with the Dade County police at that

Dennis Collins time, you know, trying to help you guys

Dennis Collins clean up the mess, the aftermath they got

Dennis Collins there after the fact.

Dennis Collins But, you know, it was

Dennis Collins it was unbelievable.

Dennis Collins It was chaos, as you know.

Dennis Collins And so I'm glad you're here.

Dennis Collins And I'm glad you're here to share once

Dennis Collins again, this amazing story.

Dennis Collins Thank you.

Dennis Collins Let's turn it over to Craig.

Dennis Collins Craig, I know you

Dennis Collins guys have met each other.

Dennis Collins And there's obviously a connection.

Dennis Collins Bill Erforth serving so many years in

Dennis Collins Miami Dade as a police

Dennis Collins officer and lieutenant.

Dennis Collins Let's, let's begin with Craig.

Craig Floyd Glad when we selected the representative

Craig Floyd of law enforcement in America to speak at

Craig Floyd the National Law Enforcement Officers

Craig Floyd Memorial dedication.

Craig Floyd I turned to you, my friend, because I

Craig Floyd knew your story a few years earlier, you

Craig Floyd had heroically ended what they call the

Craig Floyd bloodiest day in FBI history.

Craig Floyd And I certainly want to share that story

Craig Floyd here today with our audience.

Craig Floyd Let's start with the suspects and what

Craig Floyd led to this shootout on April 11 1986.

Craig Floyd Two suspects you were after

Craig Floyd Michael Platt and William Maddox.

Craig Floyd And take it from here.

Craig Floyd Who were these people you were after?

Craig Floyd And what have they done that led to this

Craig Floyd arrest situation and

Craig Floyd ultimately the shootout?

Ed Mireles Well, Craig, that's the the interesting

Ed Mireles part about this whole about the

Ed Mireles initiation of this case.

Ed Mireles At the time, right before the shooting

Ed Mireles and the weeks and months previous, we had

Ed Mireles no idea who these guys were.

Ed Mireles I tell people I said they were ghosts.

Ed Mireles They were phantoms.

Ed Mireles They would just appear on Fridays

Ed Mireles usually, be a bunch of gunfire.

Ed Mireles Sometimes it'd be dead people.

Ed Mireles Sometimes they'd be wounded

Ed Mireles people and then disappear.

Ed Mireles I mean, they really were phantoms.

Ed Mireles That's how we call them the Unknown Gang.

Ed Mireles Because witnesses couldn't tell us

Ed Mireles whether they were white,

Ed Mireles black, Hispanic or male or female.

Ed Mireles Really.

Ed Mireles So up until, well, actually, it wasn't

Ed Mireles until after the shootout

Ed Mireles happened that we knew who they were.

Ed Mireles We had, we got a lucky break about three

Ed Mireles weeks before the shooting.

Ed Mireles They had assaulted a gentleman out of

Ed Mireles Hialeah, Florida, where he was out target

Ed Mireles shooting in the Everglades.

Ed Mireles They shot him and left him for dead.

Ed Mireles And they stole his black Monte Carlo.

Ed Mireles And that gentleman,

Ed Mireles Jose Correaso was so lucky.

Ed Mireles He was shot three times.

Ed Mireles And he was about a

Ed Mireles mile into the Everglades.

Ed Mireles And he had a strong will to survive.

Ed Mireles He had a decision to make after after

Ed Mireles they shot him, shot him, they sold his

Ed Mireles car, sold his guns, stole his wallet, you

Ed Mireles know, took everything from him.

Ed Mireles He had to make a choice.

Ed Mireles Do I stay here and die?

Ed Mireles Or do I try to do something to survive?

Ed Mireles And he decided to try to survive.

Ed Mireles So he staggered about a mile from where

Ed Mireles he was shot out to the nearest highway.

Ed Mireles And he waved down some a passing vehicle

Ed Mireles passing, I think it was a

Ed Mireles station wagon or something.

Ed Mireles And the people in that car

Ed Mireles got him to a phone and call 911.

Ed Mireles And he ended up at Miami hospital.

Ed Mireles So he was our first live witness.

Ed Mireles I mean, that was really the first person

Ed Mireles that saw these guys that survived up

Ed Mireles until that time,

Ed Mireles everybody that saw him died.

Ed Mireles So even though we had a good description

Ed Mireles of these guys, there were two white

Ed Mireles males, about six feet, six

Ed Mireles feet one, six, six foot two.

Ed Mireles Slender had a military bearing, and they

Ed Mireles drove a white pickup truck.

Ed Mireles That's all the information we had up

Ed Mireles until the up until after the gunfight.

Ed Mireles So based on the information that we had,

Ed Mireles that happened on March 12.

Ed Mireles In 1986, we started doing surveillance is

Ed Mireles in South Miami, from those of you that

Ed Mireles are familiar with that

Ed Mireles area, US one, and South Miami.

Ed Mireles And I mean, it was, I

Ed Mireles mean, we had nothing.

Ed Mireles I mean, we had no idea, you know, so we

Ed Mireles just said, Hey, we're gonna do a shotgun

Ed Mireles lead, we're gonna saturate the area with

Ed Mireles officers, agents, and

Ed Mireles hopefully we'll get lucky.

Ed Mireles And as it turned out, we were lucky, one

Ed Mireles of our surveillance is the lead was to go

Ed Mireles out there and take down the license plate

Ed Mireles of any light colored

Ed Mireles pickup truck in South Florida.

Ed Mireles So I mean, that's how desperate we were

Ed Mireles for a lead, you know?

Ed Mireles So as luck would have it, John Hanlon,

Ed Mireles that unbeknownst to him, had taken down a

Ed Mireles tag of a pickup truck that passed them.

Ed Mireles And that tag, I don't recall the number

Ed Mireles off the top of my head, but it ended up

Ed Mireles being Maddox's pickup truck.

Ed Mireles So people say, well,

Ed Mireles what does that matter?

Ed Mireles Well, if we had taken the owners of the

Ed Mireles pickup truck, you know, separated them,

Ed Mireles okay, all the female owners discard them,

Ed Mireles all the black and Hispanic owners discard

Ed Mireles them, and you're left with a

Ed Mireles pool of potential suspects.

Ed Mireles So we would have whittled down the list,

Ed Mireles you know, we would have

Ed Mireles shown them photo spreads to Mr.

Ed Mireles Carriasso.

Ed Mireles And eventually, we would have identified

Ed Mireles who the shooter was, who the background

Ed Mireles was for, but it didn't happen that way.

Ed Mireles But what ended up happening was what I

Ed Mireles call intuitive policing.

Ed Mireles Our supervisor, Gordon McNeil,

Ed Mireles on April 10th, he was out at firearms

Ed Mireles training with Ben Grogan, the case agent.

Ed Mireles And he said, Hey, Ben, you know, how

Ed Mireles about we set up a surveillance tomorrow?

Ed Mireles And he and Ben had a conversation.

Ed Mireles And I know this because Gordon told me

Ed Mireles that what happened, you

Ed Mireles know, after the shooting,

Ed Mireles he said he and Ben discussed it.

Ed Mireles And Ben asked him,

Ed Mireles Gordon, what do you know?

Ed Mireles I mean, what's what's up?

Ed Mireles Do you have something I don't know?

Ed Mireles I don't know about?

Ed Mireles No.

Ed Mireles He said, number one, he said the last

Ed Mireles time they hit a bank was three weeks ago.

Ed Mireles Number two, when they hit

Ed Mireles the bank, they only got $8,000.

Ed Mireles Normally, they got $40,000 or $50,000.

Ed Mireles And number three,

Craig Floyd just to break up, how many bank robberies

Craig Floyd had they committed up to this point?

Ed Mireles Bank and armored truck robbers, you know,

Ed Mireles we can combine them together.

Ed Mireles We with evidence, we can link them to six

Ed Mireles confirmed robberies.

Ed Mireles Okay, but there were an additional 12 to

Ed Mireles 14 robberies that had the same MO that

Ed Mireles had the same style of robbery.

Ed Mireles So we think they were good for anywhere

Ed Mireles from between 12 to 15

Ed Mireles robberies in South Florida.

Ed Mireles But we could only link positively link

Ed Mireles them to six through forensics evidence.

Ed Mireles So Gordon told, as I was saying, Gordon

Ed Mireles told Ben, hey, tomorrow, the last time

Ed Mireles they hit was three weeks ago, but the

Ed Mireles last time they hit, they only got $8,000.

Ed Mireles And tomorrow is Friday, payday Friday.

Ed Mireles Those of us old timers that

Ed Mireles know what payday Friday is.

Ed Mireles So he said, Hey, I

Ed Mireles think I think they're due.

Ed Mireles I've got a hunch.

Ed Mireles I think they're going to hit tomorrow.

Ed Mireles That's how we ended up on surveillance,

Ed Mireles you know, just, you know, intuitive

Ed Mireles policing, you know, a good,

Ed Mireles good hunch by a good, good agent.

Bill Erfurth So Ed, I want to jump in real

Bill Erfurth quick and ask you something.

Bill Erfurth So the tie in here, and you were talking

Bill Erfurth about the victim that was

Bill Erfurth shot out in the Everglades.

Bill Erfurth And I think the timeline of that was

Bill Erfurth about a month prior.

Bill Erfurth How is that or how was that tied in

Bill Erfurth together so that it wasn't an isolated

Bill Erfurth incident, that it was just another random

Bill Erfurth crime that happened in the Everglades.

Bill Erfurth So how did you tie that, that together at

Bill Erfurth that point and think, wow, maybe these

Bill Erfurth guys are our bank robbers?

Ed Mireles Well, that's a good question, Bill.

Ed Mireles You know, first of all, the first getaway

Ed Mireles car that they used was, was it, I don't

Ed Mireles know how it ended up being this way, but

Ed Mireles it was a gold colored Monte Carlo.

Ed Mireles I mean, don't ask me how the Monte Carlo

Ed Mireles brand gets into there.

Ed Mireles But that car belonged to Emilio Briel.

Ed Mireles He went to target practicing and, you

Ed Mireles know, August, September of 1985, he went

Ed Mireles to the Everglades to target

Ed Mireles practice and he disappeared.

Ed Mireles He never, he, he was

Ed Mireles never seen alive again.

Ed Mireles That was about a week after his

Ed Mireles disappearance, you know, we started

Ed Mireles getting a rash of armored

Ed Mireles truck and bank robberies.

Ed Mireles And people would say, hey, the getaway

Ed Mireles car was a green car, a brown car, a gold

Ed Mireles car, you know, a white car.

Ed Mireles So we, you know, people couldn't really

Ed Mireles tell us, you know, it's, people get

Ed Mireles stressed out when people point guns in

Ed Mireles their faces, you know, or a weapon shot.

Ed Mireles People are funny that way,

Ed Mireles right?

Bill Erfurth And just a little bit.

Ed Mireles So,

Ed Mireles you know, it was hard to get a good

Ed Mireles description, you know, but it wasn't

Ed Mireles until January of 1986 that

Ed Mireles we recovered the stolen car.

Ed Mireles A witness followed the bank robbers to a

Ed Mireles Burger King in the area close

Ed Mireles to the bank that was robbed.

Ed Mireles He saw them switch from the stolen car,

Ed Mireles from the bank robbery car to their

Ed Mireles personal car, which is a pickup truck.

Ed Mireles He tried to follow them, but you know,

Ed Mireles they, they saw him and he, the bad guys

Ed Mireles got out and pointed a gun at him, you

Ed Mireles know, so he drove back.

Ed Mireles So that was, that was the, the tie

Ed Mireles in.

Bill Erfurth Okay.

Ed Mireles So had the misfortune of going to target

Ed Mireles practice in the same place where Emilio

Ed Mireles Briel had been targeted practicing.

Ed Mireles And that's when he was, when he was

Ed Mireles accosted and shot and left for dead.

Ed Mireles Now that was on March 12th, on March

Ed Mireles 19th, a week after he

Ed Mireles was shot and left for dead.

Ed Mireles We had a bank robbery at the Barnett bank

Ed Mireles at 136th street and South Dixie highway.

Ed Mireles I think Barnett, the Barnett company has

Ed Mireles been bought out by somebody else, you

Ed Mireles know, but at the time when the bank was

Ed Mireles called Barnett bank, there was a US

Ed Mireles customs inspector that was driving into

Ed Mireles the bank at about nine, nine 30 in the

Ed Mireles morning to cash a check.

Ed Mireles And I make fun of people.

Ed Mireles I make fun of people, the young kids

Ed Mireles today, I have to hold

Ed Mireles up a piece of paper.

Ed Mireles A check used to be a, a, a, a monetary

Ed Mireles instrument that you had to sign to go

Ed Mireles into a bank to get your money.

Ed Mireles So he was going in the cash a check.

Ed Mireles And when he was parking, he saw two men

Ed Mireles running out of the bank with, with long

Ed Mireles rifles wearing masks and, and, you know,

Ed Mireles had dark clothing on jump into a black

Ed Mireles car back out of the

Ed Mireles parking space and speed away.

Ed Mireles Well, when they backed up, they backed

Ed Mireles the rear end of the car towards his

Ed Mireles position, being a law enforcement

Ed Mireles officer, a customs guy,

Ed Mireles he jotted down the tag.

Ed Mireles So we had a confirmed sighting of the

Ed Mireles black Monte Carlo that was stolen from

Ed Mireles Jose Correaso to an actual

Ed Mireles bank robbery a week later.

Ed Mireles So the customs officer said it was the

Ed Mireles tag was NTJ 891, which matched exactly to

Ed Mireles the tag that Correaso's stolen car had on

Ed Mireles it.

Bill Erfurth So one other thing I want to clear up and

Bill Erfurth kind of tie in for everyone that's

Bill Erfurth listening is you mentioned that this was

Bill Erfurth the same location out of the Everglades

Bill Erfurth that they had gone at least for a second

Bill Erfurth time when this had happened.

Bill Erfurth So knowing, and we'll, we'll, we'll state

Bill Erfurth this now, these guys

Bill Erfurth were both in the military.

Bill Erfurth They both had, you know, pretty

Bill Erfurth significant military backgrounds and they

Bill Erfurth met together when they were in the

Bill Erfurth military and became friends and then

Bill Erfurth ultimately came together after they were

Bill Erfurth both honorably discharged.

Bill Erfurth So was there some real connection as to

Bill Erfurth why they would go to this

Bill Erfurth location in the Everglades?

Bill Erfurth Was it because they went out there and

Bill Erfurth they would shoot there also,

Bill Erfurth or was that ever determined?

Ed Mireles We could never ever determine that they

Ed Mireles shot there except for

Ed Mireles the following information.

Ed Mireles There, there were girlfriends, wives, you

Ed Mireles know, whatever they had at the time that

Ed Mireles they were, they were involved in the, in

Ed Mireles the robberies told us that these guys

Ed Mireles used to go shooting every week.

Ed Mireles They practiced every week.

Ed Mireles And you're from, you're

Ed Mireles from, from the Dade County area.

Ed Mireles I've been to the same place that Emilio

Ed Mireles Briel and Jose Coyasso used to shoot.

Ed Mireles It's out there in the

Ed Mireles Everglades off the Tamiami Trail

Ed Mireles between, you know, right before you get

Ed Mireles to Chrome Avenue, Tamiami Trail, there's

Ed Mireles an area there where people shoot.

Ed Mireles It's, it's an open area.

Ed Mireles You go out there, you walk on, on so many

Ed Mireles shell casings, just like walking on a

Ed Mireles brass highway, a brass sidewalk.

Ed Mireles There's so much ammo out

Ed Mireles there that's been fired.

Ed Mireles So, I mean, I've actually shot at that

Ed Mireles same location, you know, so I mean,

Ed Mireles there's a common, common area.

Ed Mireles It's, it's free and it's safe.

Ed Mireles You know, there's, well, I don't know,

Ed Mireles back then there were no houses out there.

Ed Mireles I don't know what it is now,

Ed Mireles but so it was a common area.

Ed Mireles And these guys, the, the, the bank

Ed Mireles robbers probably also went out there to

Ed Mireles practice because that's, that's what

Ed Mireles happened when they, they, they shot and

Ed Mireles left Coyasso for dead.

Ed Mireles They were out there in their pickup truck

Ed Mireles with their weapons and they were firing,

Ed Mireles they were practicing.

Ed Mireles And then somewhere along the time, a few

Ed Mireles minutes after they got there, they turned

Ed Mireles around and decided to attack Coyasso.

Ed Mireles They came up behind him, you know,

Ed Mireles pointed their weapons at him and said,

Ed Mireles Hey, listen, give us your wallet, give us

Ed Mireles your guns, give us your, you know, watch,

Ed Mireles whatever, and give us

Ed Mireles the keys to your car.

Ed Mireles So that's, that's how it ended up going

Craig Floyd You know, let me, let me jump in here for

Craig Floyd a second to help our audience understand

Craig Floyd the depth of evil

Craig Floyd that these guys sunk to.

Craig Floyd You mentioned their

Craig Floyd girlfriends and wives.

Craig Floyd There is suspicion.

Craig Floyd I don't know that it was ever proven a

Craig Floyd hundred percent, but they were suspicion

Craig Floyd that both Maddox's wife and Platt's wife

Craig Floyd died under mysterious circumstances.

Craig Floyd One was stabbed to death along with a

Craig Floyd researcher at a hospital, I believe.

Craig Floyd And the other was an apparent suicide,

Craig Floyd but it was never proven.

Craig Floyd And the suspicion was that Maddox and

Craig Floyd Platt may have killed their own wives.

Craig Floyd So, I mean, this is the despicable

Craig Floyd characters we're talking about that will

Craig Floyd stoop to no depths too

Craig Floyd deep to commit evil acts.

Craig Floyd And it's almost unbelievable to think

Craig Floyd there are people in this world that are

Craig Floyd like them in that regard.

Craig Floyd And yet you had to go up with against

Craig Floyd them on April 11, 1986.

Craig Floyd So, so take us back again, you're

Craig Floyd surveilling, you spot the vehicle, and

Craig Floyd all hell breaks loose.

Craig Floyd Talk us through that.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles Actually, it was Ben Grogan and Jerry

Ed Mireles Dubb riding in the same unit together

Ed Mireles that spotted the car.

Ed Mireles They were at 136th Street and US 1.

Ed Mireles They were at the Barnett bank that I

Ed Mireles mentioned before that had

Ed Mireles been robbed on March 19.

Ed Mireles And this is speculation on our part

Ed Mireles because all four witnesses that were

Ed Mireles involved in this

Ed Mireles little incident are dead.

Ed Mireles Ben and Jerry are dead, and

Ed Mireles the two bank robbers are dead.

Ed Mireles So we can't get information.

Ed Mireles We can't interview them, you know, but

Ed Mireles based on trying to reconstruct the event,

Ed Mireles the black Monte Carlo must have driven

Ed Mireles into the parking lot of the Barnett bank.

Ed Mireles And at the time on April 11, they had a

Ed Mireles marked unit parked in front

Ed Mireles of the bank as extra security.

Ed Mireles So they probably drove in, saw the marked

Ed Mireles unit, made a circle around the parking

Ed Mireles lot and started leaving.

Ed Mireles Well, it's our speculation that Ben and

Ed Mireles or Jerry saw the black car circling

Ed Mireles around the parking lot.

Ed Mireles So they decided to follow it and they

Ed Mireles couldn't see the tag.

Ed Mireles So they followed it north on US 1.

Ed Mireles And it wasn't until they got to about

Ed Mireles 124th Street and US 1 that they were able

Ed Mireles to catch up with it and verify that the

Ed Mireles tag on the black car was the tag from a

Ed Mireles Cuyasso stolen Monte Carlo.

Ed Mireles And boy, I'll tell you what, they'll talk

Ed Mireles about all hell breaking loose.

Ed Mireles It's like, I remember

Ed Mireles the worst of this day.

Ed Mireles I mean, they're, you

Ed Mireles know, lasered into my mind.

Ed Mireles Ben Grogan called out attention.

Ed Mireles All units were behind a black vehicle two

Ed Mireles door, wrote a tag NTJ 891.

Ed Mireles We're headed north on

Ed Mireles the South Dixie Highway.

Ed Mireles It's like, holy cow, I could not believe

Ed Mireles that these guys were that bold, that

Ed Mireles brazen to be in a stolen car.

Ed Mireles They didn't even

Ed Mireles change the tags on the car.

Ed Mireles You know, so it's kind of like, I don't

Ed Mireles know, they weren't dumb.

Ed Mireles I think they may have been just daring

Ed Mireles us, daring law enforcement to stop them.

Ed Mireles You know, I mean, I have no, I have no

Ed Mireles idea what their real motivation was.

Ed Mireles But you have to admit, you know, that the

Ed Mireles description of the car and the tag number

Ed Mireles had been publicized all over South

Ed Mireles Florida from, from Orlando down to Key

Ed Mireles West, you know, so I mean, they knew they

Ed Mireles were, they were, they

Ed Mireles were looking for the car.

Ed Mireles And here they are on a Friday morning,

Ed Mireles just driving around in a stolen car.

Ed Mireles So what followed was a short surveillance

Ed Mireles that turned into a real

Ed Mireles short high speed chase.

Ed Mireles That led to a bunch of, there were four

Ed Mireles units, three FBI cars, and one, the

Ed Mireles stolen Monte Carlo, ended up playing

Ed Mireles bumper cars on Southwest 82nd Avenue, so

Ed Mireles that we were Southbound.

Ed Mireles So there was a series of crashes and

Ed Mireles banging and rear ending and so on and so

Ed Mireles forth, you know, and what,

Ed Mireles as luck would have it, we ended up

Ed Mireles ramming them or Richard Manousine ended

Ed Mireles up ramming the, the stolen Monte Carlo

Ed Mireles into a driveway against some civilian

Ed Mireles cars and up pinned up against a tree.

Ed Mireles And he pinned them on the left side on

Ed Mireles the left side of his

Ed Mireles left side of the stolen car.

Craig Floyd He penned them.

Craig Floyd This is a residential

Craig Floyd neighborhood, as I remember, right?

Ed Mireles Correct, right.

Ed Mireles It's in front of a duplex.

Ed Mireles You know, it wasn't, it wasn't the best.

Ed Mireles It wasn't our choice.

Ed Mireles You know, and I've been asking them, why,

Ed Mireles why did you stop them there?

Ed Mireles And I have to laugh at people.

Ed Mireles You know, I tell people, I say, Hey, how

Ed Mireles many types of car stops are there?

Ed Mireles And I get all kinds of answers, high

Ed Mireles risk, low risk, you

Ed Mireles know, Bellamy, non-Bellamy.

Ed Mireles I said, no, guys, there's

Ed Mireles only two kinds of car stops.

Ed Mireles There's a compliant car stop, which means

Ed Mireles you pull over to the side

Ed Mireles when you get pulled over.

Ed Mireles And then there's a

Ed Mireles non-compliant car stop.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles Where you'd say, Hey, the heck with

Ed Mireles it.

Bill Erfurth So, Yeah.

Bill Erfurth And like you have any

Bill Erfurth luxury in that decision, right?

Ed Mireles Exactly.

Ed Mireles I don't care.

Ed Mireles No.

Ed Mireles Well, the bad guys get a choice too.

Ed Mireles You know, that's people don't realize

Ed Mireles that, you know, they,

Ed Mireles they, they get a boat too.

Ed Mireles And they said, no,

Ed Mireles we're not going to stop.

Ed Mireles So our idea was to stop them up against a

Ed Mireles cement wall, which would have been

Ed Mireles perfect because the backdrop would have

Ed Mireles been a cement wall in

Ed Mireles case there's a gunfight.

Ed Mireles But they had a choice that they got a

Ed Mireles boat and they said, no,

Ed Mireles turn into a non-compliant stop.

Ed Mireles So we ended up

Ed Mireles crashing in front of a duplex.

Ed Mireles I mean, with people in, in, inside, you

Ed Mireles know, it was, it was just one of those

Ed Mireles things, you know, so after we crashed

Ed Mireles them, uh, was the beginning of a, about a

Ed Mireles four and a half, five minute gunfight.

Craig Floyd So, so Four and five

Craig Floyd rounds were fired, as I recall.

Craig Floyd Is that right?

Ed Mireles Say that again, Craig.

Craig Floyd 145 rounds fired during this exchange.

Ed Mireles There, it's an estimate

Ed Mireles between 140 and 150 rounds.

Ed Mireles And, and people said, well,

Ed Mireles how can that be an estimate?

Ed Mireles You know, well, let

Ed Mireles me give you an example.

Ed Mireles Uh, Ron Reisner, uh, he had a,

Ed Mireles uh, a nine millimeter pistol.

Ed Mireles He fired 15 rounds from one magazine and

Ed Mireles he fired half of a second magazine.

Ed Mireles He fired seven rounds.

Ed Mireles So that is 22 shell casings that should

Ed Mireles have been on the ground

Ed Mireles from his pistol alone.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles What happened was when the, uh, after the

Ed Mireles gunfight was over, they brought in a, uh,

Ed Mireles Medivac helicopter landed right in the

Ed Mireles middle of the, of the crime scene.

Ed Mireles And you know how helicopters are.

Ed Mireles They just, the downdraft just

Ed Mireles blows stuff all over the place.

Ed Mireles So they only found,

Ed Mireles uh, Ron fired 22 shots.

Ed Mireles They only found seven

Ed Mireles of his shell casings.

Ed Mireles So there were shell casings missing all

Ed Mireles over the place, you know?

Ed Mireles So, so that's why it's estimated that the

Ed Mireles rounds fired were

Ed Mireles between 140 and 150 rounds.

Bill Erfurth So, so, you know, there were a lot of,

Bill Erfurth yeah, there were a lot of really

Bill Erfurth unfortunate circumstances or, or errors

Bill Erfurth that came along with this.

Bill Erfurth And I think it's interesting to note for

Bill Erfurth people that aren't familiar with this

Bill Erfurth story is so, you know, there were several

Bill Erfurth different collisions along the way till

Bill Erfurth you finally were able to trap their

Bill Erfurth vehicle and immobilize them.

Bill Erfurth And in, and in one of the, uh, impacts a

Bill Erfurth couple of the FBI agents guns that, uh,

Bill Erfurth were lying on the seat, they ended up

Bill Erfurth going out the door or they ended up on

Bill Erfurth the floorboard and they didn't even have

Bill Erfurth access to those weapons.

Bill Erfurth And so that kind of puts you guys a

Bill Erfurth little bit at a disadvantage.

Bill Erfurth You know, interestingly enough, and we're

Bill Erfurth going to get into this a little bit more,

Bill Erfurth as you mentioned, one of the agents had a

Bill Erfurth nine millimeter pistol, but some of the

Bill Erfurth agents were only armed with 38 revolvers

Bill Erfurth or perhaps a shotgun or two.

Bill Erfurth And this is an interesting thing because

Bill Erfurth this was the 1980s in Miami, the infamous

Bill Erfurth 1980s in Miami of the cocaine cowboy era.

Bill Erfurth There were people running around Mary

Bill Erfurth Alito Cubans, the Colombian cartels.

Bill Erfurth There were, there were six to 10 murders

Bill Erfurth happening every day to the point that

Bill Erfurth there were so many murders, the Dade

Bill Erfurth County medical examiner's office couldn't

Bill Erfurth keep the bodies and they went to the

Bill Erfurth Burger King headquarters in Miami and

Bill Erfurth rented out refrigeration trucks just to

Bill Erfurth stack and store the dead bodies.

Bill Erfurth So this is the timeframe of

Bill Erfurth when your incident happened.

Bill Erfurth And I know that one of the bad guys had a

Bill Erfurth rifle or a weapon, but your story and

Bill Erfurth this situation in many ways transformed

Bill Erfurth law enforcement and how they

Bill Erfurth thought of arming themselves.

Bill Erfurth And so let's get into that

Bill Erfurth whole shootout mindset scenario.

Bill Erfurth You're shooting, they're shooting, talk

Bill Erfurth about the exchange of gunfire and how you

Bill Erfurth guys were in fact outgunned until finally

Bill Erfurth the bad guys were killed.

Ed Mireles You know, you bring up, you set the stage

Ed Mireles perfectly for what happened.

Ed Mireles You know, I've been asked that question

Ed Mireles many times, you know, why

Ed Mireles weren't you better armed?

Ed Mireles You know, and I'm thinking,

Ed Mireles what are you talking about?

Ed Mireles Why wasn't I better armed?

Ed Mireles You know, so well, you should have had

Ed Mireles better guns and said, well, no kidding,

Ed Mireles you know, you're

Ed Mireles preaching to the choir here.

Ed Mireles But then I turned the table on them and

Ed Mireles say, okay, if you have a choice between

Ed Mireles carrying, you know, something that you

Ed Mireles want to carry and simply put an

Ed Mireles unauthorized weapon,

Ed Mireles okay, are you going to carry that

Ed Mireles unauthorized weapon or unauthorized

Ed Mireles ammunition and then run the risk of being

Ed Mireles fired and or prosecuted by your agency?

Ed Mireles And they go, well, what

Ed Mireles are you talking about?

Ed Mireles Say, hey, police officers, law

Ed Mireles enforcement officers are only allowed to

Ed Mireles carry what their departments issue them.

Ed Mireles Okay, I can't run out and buy a 44

Ed Mireles Magnum, you know, on my

Ed Mireles own and carry it on duty.

Ed Mireles I mean, if it's not an authorized weapon,

Ed Mireles then I'm in violation of

Ed Mireles the rules and regulations.

Ed Mireles So, you know, that kind of puts them, you

Ed Mireles know, brings them back in line, brings

Ed Mireles them back to reality.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles So I have to remind remind people that,

Ed Mireles hey, and as you said, in the 1980s,

Ed Mireles police officers, agents were the only

Ed Mireles authorized weapons we were we were

Ed Mireles allowed to have were six shot revolvers.

Ed Mireles That's it.

Ed Mireles And we weren't even

Ed Mireles allowed to carry rifles.

Ed Mireles At least in the cities, the agents out

Ed Mireles West working the reservations out in

Ed Mireles Idaho and Montana, they

Ed Mireles could carry 308 rifles.

Ed Mireles Okay, but I was allowed

Ed Mireles to carry only a shotgun.

Ed Mireles So I was armed with my

Ed Mireles shotgun and my 38 revolver.

Ed Mireles That's it.

Ed Mireles I mean, that was that

Ed Mireles was the order of the day.

Ed Mireles Unfortunately, we came up and you

Ed Mireles mentioned, you know, these guys's

Ed Mireles background, I think, I think it may have

Ed Mireles been Craig, you cannot overlook the fact

Ed Mireles that plant maddox were army trained.

Ed Mireles Okay, I mean, you know, when you look at

Ed Mireles our our military forces today, they're

Ed Mireles the best in the world.

Ed Mireles Some of the best troops in the world are

Ed Mireles the 82nd airborne and the 101st airborne.

Ed Mireles Okay, and then there's Navy SEALs and

Ed Mireles Delta forces and so on and so forth.

Ed Mireles But by and large, as a unit, the 82nd

Ed Mireles 101st airborne are some of the best

Ed Mireles troops in the world.

Ed Mireles They're highly, highly trained.

Ed Mireles Okay, and all sorts of weapons, you know,

Ed Mireles and so on and so forth.

Ed Mireles That's what these two guys

Ed Mireles platin maddox had as background.

Ed Mireles They were 101st airborne.

Ed Mireles Okay, now they may have only been

Ed Mireles military police in the airborne, but they

Ed Mireles were still airborne.

Ed Mireles Okay, so they were highly trained.

Ed Mireles And as we found out during the shootout,

Ed Mireles they were highly

Ed Mireles trained and heavily armed.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles So Platt had the 30 round

Ed Mireles magazine in an assault rifle.

Ed Mireles It's an assault style rifle.

Ed Mireles And his partner had a 12 gauge shotgun.

Ed Mireles So that rifle tipped

Ed Mireles the balance towards them.

Ed Mireles I mean, there were eight eight FBI agents

Ed Mireles against two bank robbers.

Ed Mireles But that rifle evened the odds because

Ed Mireles that rifle, you know, had more more

Ed Mireles rounds in one magazine, I had six rounds

Ed Mireles in my, my six shot revolver.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles So if I had to fire 30 rounds, I would

Ed Mireles have to reload five

Ed Mireles times to fire 30 rounds.

Ed Mireles He just had to keep pulling the trigger

Ed Mireles firing, firing 30 rounds.

Ed Mireles And he had at the end of the gunfight, he

Ed Mireles had had an evidence bag that

Ed Mireles was found in in one of the cars.

Ed Mireles He had an additional four or five 30

Ed Mireles round magazines in their equipment bag.

Ed Mireles Thank God they didn't get to use those.

Ed Mireles Okay, he only fired two two magazines.

Ed Mireles Paul, he fired 60 rounds from

Ed Mireles the from the from the rifle.

Ed Mireles But you know, that that's, I mean, that's

Ed Mireles a lot of rounds, you know, especially

Ed Mireles when you're on the wrong end of them.

Ed Mireles So but no, these guys were were highly

Ed Mireles trained and heavily armed.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles And one of the points I like to make in

Ed Mireles my book is that there's,

Ed Mireles there's two sides to survival.

Ed Mireles There's a physical side.

Ed Mireles That's the you know, the mechanics, you

Ed Mireles know, cover concealment, maneuver,

Ed Mireles flanking, and so on and so forth, you

Ed Mireles know, shooting and stuff like that.

Ed Mireles The other side of

Ed Mireles survival is psychological.

Ed Mireles Okay, do you have what it takes to to to

Ed Mireles survive the stress or, you know, the, the

Ed Mireles horror, I guess, of a gunfight.

Ed Mireles And you know what, there's an amazing

Ed Mireles amount of people that have no idea.

Ed Mireles I mean, they have no idea whether they

Ed Mireles could or couldn't do it.

Ed Mireles We as law enforcement officers trained

Ed Mireles trained for that every day.

Ed Mireles It's a mindset that you have to have.

Ed Mireles And these two guys had that mindset.

Ed Mireles Okay, because they were well trained.

Ed Mireles And they were well armed.

Ed Mireles Okay, so and the military bearing, I

Ed Mireles guess they had, they had

Ed Mireles this military bearing that even

Ed Mireles the Jose Cuyasso said, Hey, you know,

Ed Mireles they looked like they were military, they

Ed Mireles were they were very disciplined, very,

Ed Mireles you know, focused on things, you know,

Ed Mireles they didn't, you know, they didn't want

Ed Mireles their eyes didn't wander around looking

Ed Mireles for, you know, you know, not paying

Ed Mireles attention to the topic.

Ed Mireles So they were they were

Ed Mireles tremendous adversaries.

Ed Mireles I mean, if you're going to run across

Ed Mireles somebody, that's that

Ed Mireles you don't want to run.

Ed Mireles If you want to meet somebody that you

Ed Mireles don't want to meet those two guys, okay,

Ed Mireles highly trained, heavily armed, highly

Ed Mireles motivated guys, okay.

Craig Floyd And that's what they were pointed.

Craig Floyd You talk about their their emotional

Craig Floyd state, their psychology of survival.

Craig Floyd They were actually hit

Craig Floyd early on in the gun battle.

Craig Floyd Is that not true?

Craig Floyd They were both wounded, and yet they

Craig Floyd somehow miraculously, you know, revive

Craig Floyd themselves and kept shooting.

Ed Mireles Right.

Ed Mireles The driver of the Monte Carlo who at that

Ed Mireles time was Maddox, he was shot right away.

Ed Mireles He was shot through the wrist,

Ed Mireles the right wrist when he was aiming his

Ed Mireles shotgun at Ben Grogan.

Ed Mireles And then right immediately after that

Ed Mireles little exchange, Gordon McNeil, the

Ed Mireles supervisor shot him twice.

Ed Mireles Once right here in the in the face.

Ed Mireles Okay, and once right here in the in this

Ed Mireles what they call the brachial plexus, the

Ed Mireles shoulder area, it severed his

Ed Mireles artery and and the his vein.

Ed Mireles Forget what the mains are.

Ed Mireles But not femoral.

Ed Mireles The artery that controls brachial artery

Ed Mireles and the brachial vein up here and the

Ed Mireles brachial bundle, nerve bundle.

Ed Mireles So basically, Gordon just this, this this

Ed Mireles tool right here, this this

Ed Mireles right arm just went down.

Ed Mireles I mean, he severed it completely.

Ed Mireles But I talked to a doctor and said, Hey,

Ed Mireles this hit on a normal person, you get shot

Ed Mireles in the face with a

Ed Mireles with a bullet like this.

Ed Mireles It'll knock you out.

Ed Mireles Okay, I mean, it'll

Ed Mireles knock you unconscious.

Ed Mireles And depending in how long you're

Ed Mireles unconscious depends on the individual.

Ed Mireles If it was me, I'd probably be unconscious

Ed Mireles for several minutes, you know, but he was

Ed Mireles probably unconscious for only about, I

Ed Mireles don't know, 20, 30 seconds before he

Ed Mireles regained consciousness again.

Ed Mireles And it's like, hey, he knew

Ed Mireles he would, I'm speculating.

Ed Mireles But he knew he was in trouble.

Ed Mireles He knew he had to get out of the car.

Ed Mireles And eventually he does on his own, you

Ed Mireles know, volition, his own efforts, he gets

Ed Mireles out of the stolen Monte Carlo gets out of

Ed Mireles the car and goes over to hide behind some

Ed Mireles of the civilian vehicles in the driveway.

Ed Mireles Okay, and eventually he makes it to Ben

Ed Mireles Grogan's car to try to escape.

Ed Mireles So yeah, they were highly motivated.

Ed Mireles Absolutely.

Ed Mireles And then getting back to the plant.

Ed Mireles He was shot.

Ed Mireles The very first hit he got was through his

Ed Mireles right arm, it severed

Ed Mireles his brachial artery.

Ed Mireles And the round hit the side of his chest,

Ed Mireles his right side of his chest, the round

Ed Mireles penetrated his right lung.

Ed Mireles And it stopped about an

Ed Mireles inch short of his heart.

Ed Mireles Excuse me.

Ed Mireles I talked to a doctor about that.

Ed Mireles And that doctor said that it was a non

Ed Mireles survivable hit that he took.

Ed Mireles And that hit was put

Ed Mireles on him by Jerry Dove.

Ed Mireles Like the first hit he got the first hit

Ed Mireles plant received was a non survivable hit.

Ed Mireles He was basically a walking dead man.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles Unfortunately, he went on, he survived

Ed Mireles another two three minutes.

Ed Mireles And in that timeframe, he kept fighting

Ed Mireles and fighting and

Ed Mireles fighting trying to escape.

Ed Mireles And he goes on to injure more agents and

Ed Mireles he goes on to kill Ben and Jerry, you

Ed Mireles know, as a result of that.

Bill Erfurth So the question there would be, is there

Bill Erfurth some kind of psychological thing was he

Bill Erfurth just, or both of them rather, were they

Bill Erfurth both flying high on adrenaline?

Bill Erfurth And that's what kept them

Bill Erfurth standing and returning fire.

Bill Erfurth Or was there some kind of post autopsy

Bill Erfurth toxicology report that they

Bill Erfurth were full of dope or something?

Ed Mireles When I lecture, when I teach classes, you

Ed Mireles know, I always teach my audience, you

Ed Mireles know, say, Hey, you know what, though?

Ed Mireles I'm asked that same question, you know,

Ed Mireles what, what, were they on drugs, you know,

Ed Mireles were they on a math or coke or something?

Ed Mireles And I said, no, you know, they, but they

Ed Mireles did have coffee in their system.

Ed Mireles You know, but I said it was Colombian

Ed Mireles coffee, you know, so that was

Bill Erfurth a copy of the, the decade there.

Speaker 5 You know,

Ed Mireles I shouldn't, I shouldn't, you know, tease

Ed Mireles Columbia, they take too many hits as it

Ed Mireles is, you know, because of all the drug

Ed Mireles dealers, but no, they had

Ed Mireles Danish coffee in their system.

Ed Mireles That's all they had.

Ed Mireles These guys were, were a fitness fanatics.

Ed Mireles They were, I don't know, they weren't,

Ed Mireles they weren't survivalists per se, but

Ed Mireles they were survivalists before survivalist

Ed Mireles or preppers were, was a thing.

Dennis Collins Yeah.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles They were, they didn't go to the gym, you

Ed Mireles know, they occasionally would jog, but

Ed Mireles they were very fit and very conscious

Ed Mireles about their, their wellness and the way

Ed Mireles they looked and the way

Ed Mireles they presented themselves.

Ed Mireles But getting back to the, the, the

Ed Mireles psychological side of survival, I mean,

Ed Mireles that, that comes from training.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles I mean, granted, I mean,

Ed Mireles I can't say that training is, is the

Ed Mireles end all to end alls, because there are

Ed Mireles some people out there that don't have any

Ed Mireles training that want, that want, have a

Ed Mireles strong will to survive.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles So, but you, you, you combine a strong

Ed Mireles personal will to survive

Ed Mireles and couple it with training.

Ed Mireles Oh my God.

Ed Mireles I mean, you, you can build a, you know, I

Ed Mireles mean, so many medal of honor winners, you

Ed Mireles know, should have been dead, but they

Ed Mireles kept functioning and

Ed Mireles going and going and going.

Craig Floyd And let me, let me just jump in because

Craig Floyd when we talk about the psychology of

Craig Floyd survival and how some people have it, and

Craig Floyd maybe others don't, you obviously had

Craig Floyd yourself because you

Craig Floyd were severely injured.

Craig Floyd You're, you're, I think you're non

Craig Floyd shooting hand, your left hand, your left

Craig Floyd arm was debilitated

Craig Floyd early in the shootout.

Craig Floyd And, and yet somehow you survived.

Craig Floyd And as all the other agents, now we have

Craig Floyd Ben Grogan dead, Jerry doves died.

Craig Floyd You have four other agents who were

Craig Floyd seriously injured by the gunfire.

Craig Floyd And yet you ended, you found some will to

Craig Floyd survive some ability to fire without

Craig Floyd having the other hand usable.

Craig Floyd And you ended the gun shootout.

Craig Floyd Tell us what was going through your mind

Craig Floyd at that point in time and how you

Craig Floyd ultimately ended it.

Ed Mireles Well, I have to be honest with the

Ed Mireles listeners and the viewers, viewers, you

Ed Mireles know, I mean, if I told you I wasn't

Ed Mireles scared, I would be a liar, you know, so,

Ed Mireles but

Ed Mireles fear is not, I mean, fear is

Ed Mireles not, what did churches say?

Ed Mireles The only thing we have

Ed Mireles to fear is fear itself.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles And you have to acknowledge fear.

Ed Mireles I mean, everybody gets fearful or

Ed Mireles apprehensive or some,

Ed Mireles some level of anxiety.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles And I was, I started

Ed Mireles going through certain stages.

Ed Mireles I became, when the surveillance started,

Ed Mireles you know, and, and this attention, all

Ed Mireles units were behind the stolen Monte Carlo.

Ed Mireles I got apprehensive.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles When we started doing the bumper cars, I

Ed Mireles became a little fearful because I'm

Ed Mireles thinking, okay, you know, I don't know

Ed Mireles how this is going to end up, you know, or

Ed Mireles where we're going to end up.

Ed Mireles But, and I was still fearful when the

Ed Mireles bullets were flying, because

Ed Mireles I ended up across the street.

Ed Mireles I had to cross like 50 yards of open

Ed Mireles space to get to, to get to where the

Ed Mireles subjects were because I had a shotgun and

Ed Mireles the effective range of a shotgun on paper

Ed Mireles might be 50 to 75 yards.

Ed Mireles But in reality, if you want to be

Ed Mireles effective against a human target, you,

Ed Mireles you got to be closer.

Ed Mireles So I figured, Hey, I got to get closer to

Ed Mireles these guys, 25 yards and then.

Ed Mireles So I ran across the street and the

Ed Mireles bullets are whizzing by me.

Ed Mireles I mean, it's, again, Churchill said,

Ed Mireles there's nothing more exhilarating than

Ed Mireles hearing a bullet pass you by, you know,

Ed Mireles as long as the bullet

Ed Mireles doesn't hit you, you're okay.

Ed Mireles But when I, this is a fantastic event.

Ed Mireles I was shot by a two to three caliber or

Ed Mireles five, five, four and five, six caliber,

Ed Mireles five, four and five, six millimeter.

Ed Mireles The round hit me right here, right where

Ed Mireles my little finger is.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles And

Ed Mireles if you look at the way I am on the video

Ed Mireles right now, if I had not hit my arm up in

Ed Mireles this position as I'm running across the

Ed Mireles street, I brought my, my shotgun up

Ed Mireles because I had my muzzle pointing at

Ed Mireles Gordon McNeil and my supervisor's back.

Ed Mireles And I'm thinking, Oh my God,

Ed Mireles I got to worry about safety.

Ed Mireles So I brought the weapon up like this.

Ed Mireles And that's when I got shot.

Ed Mireles Okay, right here.

Ed Mireles So imagine if the arm hadn't been there.

Ed Mireles Okay, where would that round have hit me?

Ed Mireles It would have been a whole

Ed Mireles different, you know, story,

Ed Mireles but not only am I lucky, I'm lucky like

Ed Mireles eight times over, you know, like a cat.

Ed Mireles I mean, it was an amazing physiological

Ed Mireles reaction, because when I took the hit,

Ed Mireles okay, that round almost

Ed Mireles ripped my forearm off my body.

Ed Mireles The only thing holding my arm to my body

Ed Mireles was this bottom section of meat, the

Ed Mireles muscles down here, and my forearm, my arm

Ed Mireles was just completely destroyed.

Ed Mireles And the only thing holding it up, you

Ed Mireles know, holding it

Ed Mireles attached to me was this part.

Ed Mireles So here's, here's the

Ed Mireles good, the good part.

Ed Mireles When I took the hit, I had no idea.

Ed Mireles People have asked me, Hey,

Ed Mireles what's it feel like to get shot?

Ed Mireles And I look at him and I look him right in

Ed Mireles the eyes, I don't know.

Ed Mireles You know, and they look at me like I've

Ed Mireles got two heads, you know, say, what, what

Ed Mireles are you talking about, dude?

Ed Mireles I said, Well, you know

Ed Mireles what, I mean, I was shot.

Ed Mireles Yes, when I didn't know I was shot until

Ed Mireles several minutes after

Ed Mireles the fact that I was shot.

Ed Mireles Okay, because this was so the human body

Ed Mireles is such a fantastic machine.

Ed Mireles Okay, I this, the bullet almost ripped my

Ed Mireles my hand off my body, felt

Ed Mireles no pain, none whatsoever.

Ed Mireles Okay, I mean, I fell back

Ed Mireles the physiological

Ed Mireles reaction caused me to jerk back.

Ed Mireles I was on my back, but I

Ed Mireles had no idea what happened.

Ed Mireles And I didn't even know I've been shot for

Ed Mireles about a minute afterwards.

Ed Mireles I had the shotgun in

Ed Mireles my right hand like this.

Ed Mireles And I'm trying to get up using my left

Ed Mireles arm to push myself up because shooting

Ed Mireles the shooting was still going on bullets

Ed Mireles are still flying over my head.

Ed Mireles And I'm thinking, hey, I need to get into

Ed Mireles this, you know, need

Ed Mireles to get into this action.

Ed Mireles And to say that I was not, I wasn't

Ed Mireles normal at that point in time, because,

Ed Mireles you know, my physiological state, after I

Ed Mireles got hit, my body kind of went into like,

Ed Mireles into a different mode,

Ed Mireles went to survival mode.

Ed Mireles I mean, I, my, I got tunnel vision, my

Ed Mireles hearing was lost, you know, and you know,

Ed Mireles I was just like walking in slow motion or

Ed Mireles moving in slow motion, it

Ed Mireles was just kind of strange.

Ed Mireles But it wasn't until about a minute, after

Ed Mireles I was shot, I'm thinking,

Ed Mireles why is my left arm not working?

Ed Mireles And I'm scanning for threats, I'm looking

Ed Mireles up because I'm on my back.

Ed Mireles And I had to rip my eyes off the thread

Ed Mireles points, to look down at my arm to see

Ed Mireles what the what's going on here.

Ed Mireles It wasn't until I looked and made a

Ed Mireles visual inspection of my body, that I

Ed Mireles realized that had been shot.

Ed Mireles Now at that point, you know, you're

Ed Mireles apprehensive, and you're fearful.

Ed Mireles Being honest with the audience here, when

Ed Mireles I saw that I'd been shot, and I saw that

Ed Mireles my arm had all had practically been

Ed Mireles ripped off my body, I went into terror.

Ed Mireles I was terrified.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles But I had to maintain the discipline.

Ed Mireles Okay, the discipline, you know, state of

Ed Mireles mind, you know,

Ed Mireles think, hey, okay, it's bad.

Ed Mireles You're still alive, you're still

Ed Mireles breathing, you feel no pain.

Ed Mireles And I'm looking at it.

Ed Mireles I at the time, I had a lot of first aid

Ed Mireles classes in the military and in the FBI,

Ed Mireles I'm looking at it, I'm assessing, I'm

Ed Mireles thinking, Hey, this is survivable.

Ed Mireles Okay, you have several minutes before you

Ed Mireles again, it's all up here.

Ed Mireles Okay.

Ed Mireles I said to us, I have several minutes

Ed Mireles before I get to a point

Ed Mireles where it becomes a threat.

Ed Mireles So I just ignored it.

Ed Mireles Again, there's no pain.

Ed Mireles So and I focused on the gunfight itself,

Ed Mireles looking for the rest,

Ed Mireles looking for threats.

Ed Mireles And then I realized,

Ed Mireles I tell people it gets better.

Ed Mireles I realized, I saw movement out of the

Ed Mireles corner of my eye, I'm

Ed Mireles thinking, what the heck is that?

Ed Mireles I looked up and I saw red, red spray,

Ed Mireles spraying up, you know, past my feet.

Ed Mireles You know, I'm thinking,

Ed Mireles what the heck is that?

Ed Mireles I looked up and I'm

Ed Mireles thinking, Oh my God, it's blood.

Ed Mireles So I had, I had taken a second hit right

Ed Mireles here across the temple area this way.

Ed Mireles It's it.

Ed Mireles Luckily, it didn't, you know, break my

Ed Mireles head, you know, but it just went

Ed Mireles underneath the skin, severed the temporal

Ed Mireles artery, and kind of kept going.

Ed Mireles So I'm thinking, okay, I've got arterial

Ed Mireles bleeding, you know, so I put my hand up

Ed Mireles like this, thinking, okay, and

Ed Mireles unbeknownst to me, you know, when I was

Ed Mireles doing this, I was compressing the wound.

Ed Mireles And this flap of skin that was there,

Ed Mireles pressed on the artery, artery and

Ed Mireles prevented it from

Ed Mireles from squirting blood out.

Ed Mireles It's still still bled,

Ed Mireles but it wasn't squirting.

Ed Mireles So I totally ignored that.

Ed Mireles I mean, I wasn't fearful at that point in

Ed Mireles time, because I was trying to survive and

Ed Mireles thinking, Hey, this is all survivable.

Ed Mireles I mean, I don't

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