A warm welcome back to Heroes Behind the Badge.

I'm Dennis Collins, joined by Craig Floyd and Bill Erfurth.

In the last episode, we heard the first part of FBI Special Agent Ed Mireles'

incredible story from April 11th, 1986.

The day that became known as the bloodiest in FBI history, Ed and his fellow agents

had tracked down two ruthless bank robbers in a residential neighborhood in Miami.

The chase ended in a crash and a deadly gunfight had begun.

When we left Ed, he had been shot twice.

His left arm was nearly destroyed.

He was bleeding from his head wound and he was lying on the

ground with bullets still flying overhead, but his mindset was clear.

This is survivable.

Now, ed is going to tell us in his own words how he survived and how

he ended one of the most intense gunfights in law enforcement history

using just one arm and a shotgun.

So with, with the bullets flying over your head and

you laying on the ground realizing you've been seriously injured.

Somehow you miraculously, I guess, get to your feet, but you still got a shotgun.

I'm not a gun guy.

But how do you end the gunfight with a shotgun when you've

got only one arm to use?

Well, you know what, I've been asked that question, uh, so many times.

You know, and people are looking for, for, um, I don't know what the,

what the, what my explanation is.

They're looking for a. A pill.

They're looking for a, a silver bullet, you know, answer.

And I don't have one for 'em.

Um.

People have said, Hey, when, what you did, you know, with the one

hand racking and so on and so forth, did you ever practice that?

I said, nope.

Did you ever see it in a movie?

I said, nope.

Did you ever read it in the book?

I said, no.

I said, you know, uh, under stress, you know, if you maintain a disciplined

mindset, you know, I mean, you know, maintain your discipline,

focus on, on, on what you're doing, focus on survival and not panic.

Okay.

Uh, don't, don't get, uh.

Fight or flight, it's fight, fight, flight, freeze, don't

freeze, and you still have the option of running if you have to.

Okay.

But at this point in time, I, I didn't have the option of running.

I had to sit and fight.

So I was disciplined, focused, always looking for plans, you know, and

it's amazing how your brain under.

Your mind is working.

I some, some doctors say, you know, your mind can work a hundred miles a second.

I mean, I don't know what that means, but I will tell you this.

I had scenarios going through my mind.

I was like, discarding them.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. I was going through, through different

scenarios, different options.

Every time I moved to a different position, a scenario would come up, I'd

move some more and okay, you can't do that anymore you gotta do this sort.

The mind was just constantly working, working, working, uh, trying, trying to

get out, uh, trying to figure out where the threat was, eliminate the threat.

Okay.

And then, you know, af after the, uh, the threats eliminated that

then you can get aid, you know?

So, um, that was my, that was my purpose.

But anyway, getting back to what your question asked.

Yeah.

How did I do that?

It just, it was an epiphany.

Okay.

I'm, I leaned up against the car.

The way I'm sitting right now.

I'm on my butt on the ground and I, I looked over to the left

like this, trying to peek around to see where the bad guys were.

'cause I, I maneuvered on my back.

I kind of flanked, flanked them, um, on the ground.

'cause I mean, I couldn't stand up, so I was crawling on my back and I came around

and I saw peeked around the car and I saw them thinking, Hey, I've got the

shotgun, I've got, I had the, uh, the, uh, trigger grip in my right hand like this.

And I said, I've got the shotgun, but I don't have a left arm.

You know, so, because you need two, two hands to steady a shotgun.

Otherwise, you know, it's not gonna be steady.

And I'm thinking, how can I steady the shotgun?

And as I'm looking at the whole scene, I see the bumper of the car

that I'm leaning up against and I'm thinking, Hey, there's a bumper,

the lip on the bumper right here.

So I said, Hey, this will be my left arm.

I set the shotgun on the bumper, you know, had my right hand on the, on the grip.

The trigger and I'm thinking, okay, line up the sights.

And I said, just let you know.

Let it go.

Press the trigger.

Boom.

And when I, when it, it fired, the recoil brought me back and it just was so

natural that I just came back like this, back to the original setting position.

I had the shotgun in my hand like this.

I think, Hey, I'll just let the shotgun slide through my hand

down until it hits the ground.

I'll pitch with my legs, rack it, go down to the pistol grip again.

Bring it up, put the gun on the, on the lip and fire.

Okay.

Never trained it, never saw it in the movie.

And it just, it was a total epiphany, you know?

And, um, it, it's, it's, it was, you know, almost like a God-sent miracle

because I'm thinking, you know, how else, how else could, could,

could I have come up with that?

I mean, I'm, I'm not that I.

I can't say that I'm not that bright, but you know, in a survival environment,

you know, when you're fighting for your life, you know, everything, anything

and everything is, is an option

close.

So how close were you to, to them when you shot 'em and ended it?

I was going back to, uh, wound ballistics.

Okay.

At, by that point in time, the gun fight's going on for about three minutes now.

So I, I've been wounded for three minutes.

Uh, I'm bleeding out for three minutes.

So at that point in time, you know, I was losing consciousness.

I would, my, my eyes were actually drooping down and

things were getting dark.

All, you know, around my, my vision.

And if you're looking at me, looking at me on the video, my head as I'm

working my head would actually do this.

And I'd have to shake myself awake.

Uh, and I knew I was passing out from, from, uh, blood loss, so

I, I had to keep shaking my head and my head was still going.

Like that, you know, like I, so I had to fight to stay awake.

So I'm thinking, oh man, I'm, I, I'm getting close, I'm bleeding out,

you know, instinctively I knew, Hey listen, you know, we gotta, we gotta

move this along, you know, you know, so at, at some point in time, um.

I don't mind talking about this because, but it's very personal.

At some point in time, I, I, um, I had a conversation with God, you know,

'cause I knew at, at one point, and I hope you never have to get to it.

I mean, I, maybe we all have to get to that point in life, you know.

But at one point, I, I came to the realization in, in my heart and in

my mind that I was going to die.

Okay?

Because I was doing this, I was going.

I, I was, I couldn't hold my head up.

I was just like, it was, it was, uh, getting darker and darker and darker.

So I'm thinking, Hey, you know what, uh, I'm gonna die.

And when I said I'm gonna die, another miracle, uh, I became fearless.

There was no fear.

Okay.

I'm thinking, Hey, what, what are they gonna do to me?

Send me to Miami.

You know, I'm gonna die.

You know?

So I have not, I mean, I have nothing else to lose, you know?

'cause I've already it.

Acknowledge that I'm going to die, I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna give up my life.

Okay, so what else can people do to you?

So Ed, I want to ask, so you finished them off and

that's the end of this gun fight.

It's pretty dramatic gun fight, obviously.

Mm mm-hmm.

How many times did you rack that shotgun?

Do you know?

Five times.

Five times.

So you did it five times, one arm by putting it on the ground between

your knees and, and mm-hmm functioned it completely as you had described.

So five times.

That's incredible.

Again, you know, it was, um, it just.

When, when you're desperate to survive, I mean, you are scanning,

your mind is scanning for options.

You know, it's like, oh, that's good.

No, that's, that's stupid.

This is good.

This may work.

And then you come up with, with one or two options.

Okay.

My other option was I, well, maybe I can stand up and actually hold

the shotgun one handed and move in on, on the car that they were in.

You know, actually, I mean, actually get it.

For lack of a better term, and there's no, there's no way I could have done it.

Assault... but you know, that word assault, assault the car,

moving towards the car to get the shotgun up in their face, really.

I mean, that was my intention because I figured, hey, I only get one shot.

Okay.

The, the shot that's in, in the, in the chamber, you know, I get one shot, put it

right in their face, fire the shot, and then drop the gun and go to my revolver.

And so I'll be at the car.

That was also an option, but I said, well, you know what, I like staying far away.

So,

so I decided to go with the, with the racking action.

So how, how long did you have to stay in the hospital after that?

Yeah, I was in the hospital for

a little over.

A little over two weeks and I was home, um, for a year.

Okay for a year.

And I was off on, on light duty for 27 months.

I mean, it was, it was a devastating hit.

I mean, it, uh, when I got to the hospital, they told, my wife had

responded, she's also an agent.

She responded to the scene and then responded to the hospital.

She was doing all the talking.

'cause I was in la-la land and I was in, I was on the morphine, I was on the morphine

train, you know, so, um.

She came to me, she told me, she said, Hey, uh, you know, the doctor's

saying that there, that there's only one option, you know, and that they're

gonna have to amputate your arm.

And I'm thinking, oh, come on.

You gotta be kidding me.

I said, uh, I mean, can't they do something?

And then I knew, I mean, it was a, it would've been a, it

would've been a. Huge miracle.

And they said, well, that's her first option.

So what's her?

I said, what's her second option?

And she went back and asked them and she goes, okay, here's

the second option, amputation.

I said, well, that's the first option.

And I said, so they gotta do better than that, you know?

So we went back and and forth and they said, Hey, listen.

We need to check his arteries.

They said, Hey, if my, my two arteries, my brachial and older artery are

intact, they said they can save, you know, the, the blood flow has to be

able to reach the hand and the fingers.

They said, if the arteries have been ripped apart, forget it.

We can't save the hand.

Okay.

So they, they went in and did, did the, you know, I don't know the, or.

Scopic, you know, tube thing, you know, and they found that

the arteries were intact.

I said, okay, let's a step in the right direction.

So if they're intact, we might be able to reconstruct his arm.

Okay.

So, uh, I had.

I had three surgeries in two weeks, you know, and the first one

was just to clean up the wound.

The second one was to set my arm, like a, like a broken arm.

And then the third one was to follow up on the, on the setting and to

make sure that the, there was still blood flow and stuff like that.

You know, I had, I lost a lot of nerve damage.

I had a lot of nerve damage to the hand, you know, but it, that's kind of.

I was told by a neurologist that nerves have a tendency to grow back,

you know, if, if you give them enough time, you know, and I, I've gotten

to, to where I can feel, initially I couldn't feel anything with my hand

because of the nerve damage, you know, but they managed to save my arm and

I've had a, I have a 50% disability to the left arm, you know, but hey.

50% is better than no percent.

You know, you know,

Ed, Ed, I have a last question and that is, um, after all

this, the recovery took o over a year.

Um, you're severely injured.

You almost died.

You, you thought you were gonna die, and yet you go back to the FBI and, and go

on to serve 25 years before you retired.

Why, why go back at that point in time?

It just doesn't seem like a normal thing to do After going through all that.

You know, that's a tough question to answer, Craig.

You know, I mean, it's like, I mean, I, I,

I don't wanna sound like a, like a crazy person, but I loved my job,

you know, uh, when I was working in Miami, I hated my job in Washington.

Okay.

When I was in the FBI in Washington, because it was too white collar, you know?

I mean, um.

There's just, other than Congress, there's no crime in Washington.

You know,

that's, by the way, in case the audience, I'm taking a shot at Congress, by the

way, you know, but when I got to Florida, I mean, there was crime everywhere.

I mean, e even even a blind agent can find a, a, a nut, you know, in

Miami, Miami at some point in time.

It was such a great job.

Such a great, i, I tell people, I say, Hey, I would do this

job even if you didn't pay me.

You know, I mean, it was that fantastic.

I mean, you know, I felt I was contributing, I felt I was

helping people, you know, helping.

You know, I, I looked at it this way, you know, if you have a bad guy, if

you have a bad situation, you know, a, a, a criminal, a complete scumbag, uh,

who do I want to confront that person?

My, my mother.

No, I don't want my mother to meet this guy.

My sister.

No.

Your mother, your sister.

No.

The best person to confront a a terrible person like that is me and

guys like me, guys and women like me.

You know where, where I was young.

I was fit, I was well trained, I was highly motivat motivated, and,

and for 1980 I was well armed.

Okay.

Who were you gonna send?

You know, uh, my mom and my or my sister, or are you gonna send me?

I was the best person and got women, men and women like me were the best

people to send to confront these people.

Okay.

And I loved my job.

Okay.

And I couldn't think, you know, I was really terrified that if they amputated my

arm, I, I probably would've been retired.

You know, medically retired and that, that really terrified

me more than getting shot.

You think, you know, I'm gonna have to sit home and, and try to do

something constructive, you know?

And you know what they say?

Idle hands or the devil's worked most, but.

So Ed, you know, and you were talking about Miami and we can both

relate to Miami during the eighties.

We both worked.

In the, in Miami during that time and, you know, going back and

saying it again, I mean, that was the era of the cocaine cowboys.

It was from the early eighties, from the Marielle, Marielle, Cuba, uh,

boats of refugees that came in when Fidel Castro emptied his prisons

and insane asylums and sent 300 some thousand, 300,000 Mary Alitos to Miami.

From the early eighties to the, to the early nineties for 10 to

12 years, Miami was the crime capital of the United States.

There was no place else in the United States that was as

wild, ruthless, and dangerous.

No, and you know, you're your.

Suspects in your shooting situation.

Were, were highly armed, but it, it was very common.

People were running around, bad guys were running around kilos of cocaine.

I mean, the Miami skyline was essentially built on cocaine.

Yeah.

Brickell Avenue had every international bank in the world during the eighties.

On Brickle in Miami and laundered trillions of dollars of money.

Yeah, yeah.

Guys were running around with, with Uzi, Mac tens, Mac elevens,

the shootouts were beyond belief, but this is what's remembered by

so many in this situation where unfortunately, two agents were killed.

You were seriously wounded.

The other, you know, all of you guys.

But that finally changed, where now the cops are carrying rifles and the cops went

to semi-automatic pistols because it was amazing to me listening to your story,

but amazing to me during the eighties, especially early on there with so many

crazy people running around with weaponry.

And we were running around with six shooters, and I thought, how

in the hell does this even work?

No, I mean, it, we made it work.

I mean, men and women like you and, and, and Dade.

I tell you what, I love Dade County cops, man, I'm tell you.

They, they, they, so many guys and women responded to

our, our to help us, you know?

And.

I, I'm, I'm embarrassed to say that I've forgotten their names.

You know, I mean, it's been, it's been almost 40 years, you know, but I mean,

you know, my mind's gotten old, you know, but I'll tell you what I mean.

You, you, you, you, you've walked the beats, uh, in, in date,

you know, I mean, you know.

Guys like you and women, men and women like you and Dade and Miami

and, and, and Miami Beach and Broward.

I mean, tho those guys, I mean, they're the ones that have to, uh,

work the front lines, you know?

And, um, you know, we all the, we and the bureau, the bureau gets

a, uh, sometimes we deserve it.

You know, we get a a, a black eye or punch in the nose, you know, that we don't

cooperate with local pd. But, you know, there were, there were times when, when

we were quite, quite honestly, we were.

Asses, you know, but, uh, by, but the defend my, uh, the bureau

though, there, there are, and I've seen it from both sides.

Okay.

Um, there are some cases that, and I've been on task force say, Hey, you're,

you're not giving us all the information.

And I'm thinking, wow.

You know, this information is coming from a, a, it's a sole source, one

source in the, the mountains of Pakistan.

Okay?

And.

It has to be held very tightly close to the vest.

But we need to go hit this house because there's some suspected

terrorists in this house.

I can't tell you where this information came from.

I, all I can tell you is that I need your help to hit this house.

Okay.

So, you know, and, and I've seen it from both sides.

You know, sometimes, you know, we would just keep information from,

from the locust because we were.

We were knuckleheads other times, man, you got that sole source

on in the mountain in Pakistan.

Okay.

That was, that was somehow or another, the US intelligence picked

up the, the information somehow.

And, you know, and gave it to the bureau, and the bureau was acting on it.

So we, we can't tell, uh, some poor sheriff in, in Dade County or, or, or

Omaha, Nebraska, Hey, where it came from, you know, but we, we just need to

act on it, you know, so, so, you know.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, it, it cuts both ways, but I'll tell you what though.

Dade, you know, officers like that are, are, are, are.

I mean, you guys, you guys are the, are the, the, the real

shield, you know, between, uh, the evil and, and, and the public.

But one more thing before I, before we, you know, I don't, I don't wanna,

I don't wanna let this conversation go, um, without mentioning this specifically,

I showed up.

Okay.

I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm just one of eight guys that showed up.

Okay.

I just did what I had to do.

Okay.

The real heroes in, in this incident are Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove.

Okay.

They made the ultimate sacrifice.

Okay.

They, and, and I was there with them.

Okay.

And I don't wanna sound cliche-ish, but, but, but I'll say it anyway.

They put their toes on a line in, in, in the sand.

Okay.

And they never stepped back.

Okay.

And they took withering gunfire, like I said, 140 shots.

Well, the estimated 140 shots were fired.

They never stepped back.

And, and, uh, they were both wounded once before they were

subsequently shot and killed.

But they never, they never stepped back, you know, and I tell people, I say,

Hey, they were at the tip of the spear.

Uh, and I don't have a diagram to show the audience, but they were facing

the subjects this way, and I was off.

So they're left behind the car and I managed to come around to the left.

I flanked the bad guys and eventually I came back up this way, they

gave me time to figure out what I was doing, regroup, formulate a

plan, and then execute that plan.

Unfortunately, it was not.

With enough time to be able to help and save Ben and Jerry.

So those two guys are my heroes.

Okay.

Uh, they're the ones that made, made the ultimate sacrifice.

I, I just showed up so.

Well, you were quite the hero there, ed.

Yeah.

I don't want you to take.

Yeah.

Too little of the credit.

But, you know, let's, let's just say the day you and I dedicated the National

Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, uh, Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove had their

names inscribed on that memorial, and they're gonna be remembered forever more.

We will never forget their sacrifice and we'll be talking about them

and their heroics and their service for, uh, generations to come, thanks

to that memorial and yeah, and the telling the story here today.

Certainly help.

And in closing, let me just, uh, remind people that, uh, there is a

book out there that describes this entire incident, goes into a lot

more of the detail and the heroics.

It's called FBI, Miami Firefight, written by Ed Mireles.

And I encourage people to go out and get that book and, and read the entire story.

Uh, Dennis, I know you're scolding as we've probably gone over our time.

What a story, what a, how do you.

How do you, how do you, how do you, uh, call an end to this story?

I mean, this, I mean, we could go on for hours, Ed, and, uh.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for your, your, your, you know, for doing this

over again because you know what, it's important, and I heard, I thought I knew

a lot about this story since I kind of.

Lived there and was in the news media and so forth.

You said things today that I'd never heard before, and so there's always something.

And you know, particularly what I enjoyed hearing from you because you know, this is

so important in anything you do in life, I don't care what it is, it's your mindset

and you spoke to your mindset of survival.

This, I, I love your mantra.

This is survivable.

This is survivable.

That is a lesson for all of us.

Mm-hmm.

If you could survive what happened to you?

We can survive the little things, relatively small things that happen to us.

Mm-hmm.

So I take that lesson from your heroic behavior.

This is survivable.

Thank you for that.

Thank you for planning that, that that is an excellent

mantra that we should all use.

And in your case, it probably saved your life.

Absolutely.

And thank you gentlemen for having me as a guest.

I really appreciate it.

Well, your story is unbelievable.

Thank you, ed.

Thank you.

You are a true hero behind the badge.

Thank you for sharing your story, ladies and gentlemen.

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