Edmundo Mireles

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Edmundo "Ed" Mireles Jr. (* 1953 in Alice , Texas ) is a former Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). For his service in the Miami shootings in 1986 , he was the first officer to be awarded the FBI Medal of Valor (FBI Medal of Valor) and was named Police Officer of the Year.

Career

Edmundo Mireles was born in Alice and raised in Beeville , Bee County . He served in the United States Marine Corps , graduating from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in January 1979 , and joining the FBI that same year. After an initial assignment at the FBI Washington, DC branch , he was transferred to the FBI Miami branch in 1985 . He married an FBI agent and had a son.

Between October 1985 and March 1986, Mireles investigated a number of car thefts and armed robberies, primarily in the area of ​​the South Dixie Highway . Two men unknown to the police had always robbed banks and money transporters with automatic rifles and camouflage suits with almost military precision and made ruthless use of their firearms; the two were suspected of murdering five people and seriously injuring two others since 1983. Their prey was now cover more than 100,000 $ .

Through the information of a surviving victim, the two suspects were spotted on April 11, 1986 in a stolen Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the South Dixie Highway . Edmundo Mireles was a passenger in one of the five civilian emergency vehicles that had participated in the chase. In order to keep the two suspects away from more densely populated areas, they were pushed off the road by officers in the census-designated place Kendall . The car of Mireles and John Hanlon collided with a wall, while the pursued Monte Carlo crashed into a tree. Immediately thereafter, a violent shooting broke out between the two alleged robberies and eight FBI agents, in which at least 145 shots were fired.

Within minutes, two agents were killed and five others seriously injured. Edmundo Mireles was hit by a projectile from a Ruger Mini-14 , which shattered his left arm and knocked him to the ground. After the fire on the perpetrators had stopped, they tried to escape with one of the FBI vehicles. Mireles then saw the motionless John Hanlon lying behind the intended getaway car, who would have been run over if the perpetrators had escaped because the getaway car was blocked in front by another car. With only one intact hand, he involved the two perpetrators in an exchange of fire with a forearm rifle, but had no effect and was shot at by one of the perpetrators himself again. After the two of them got into the car, Mireles got up, walked up to them and shot them both with his service revolver from a short distance.

Edmundo Mireles collapsed shortly afterwards and was admitted to South Miami Hospital , where he had to undergo two operations. His left arm remained compromised, but Mireles was able to return to the service after a year of recovery. He became an instructor at the FBI Academy in Quantico , Virginia . He later returned to his former post in Miami and also served in the Omaha , Nebraska, branch .

On April 10, 1990, he was the first agent ever to be honored with the FBI Medal of Valor ( FBI Medal of Valor ); he received the award from FBI Director William S. Sessions . On October 7, 1986, he was named Police Officer of the Year by the International Association of Chiefs of Police with the Police Officer of the Year Award . In his hometown of Beeville, a large part of the abandoned naval air force base Chase Field was taken over by the Texas law enforcement agency in 1999 and part of the facility was renamed Edmundo Mireles Training Academy .

Class lawsuit against the FBI

He was also one of 311 agents involved in a class action lawsuit against the FBI seeking to raise awareness of discrimination against Hispanics in the federal agency. A federal court in Texas upheld the plaintiffs and asked the FBI to promote and support Hispanic American officials on an equal footing with other officials in the future. James Perez, the FBI's equality officer, stood before Congress and responded with an increase in his department.

Literature and film

  • The Ayoob Files: The Book by Massad Ayoob
  • The Encyclopedia of American Law Enforcement by Michael Newton
  • The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide by Athan G. Theoharis
  • Forgotten Heroes: Police Officers Killed in Dade County by William Wilbanks
  • Unintended Consequences by John Ross

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Mireles, Edmundo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mireles, Ed
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American FBI agent
DATE OF BIRTH 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Alice , Texas