Miami Shootout 1986

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The 1986 Miami shootings occurred during an attempt to arrest two felons on April 11, 1986 in Kendall , a suburb of Miami , Florida, and is considered the largest and most loss-making exchange of fire in FBI history .

The two former professional soldiers Michael Platt and William Matix terrorized the greater Miami area in the 1980s by robbing banks and money transporters, and they were also charged with several murders. After months of searching, the two suspects were discovered in a stolen vehicle and, after a brief pursuit, were put on the street. However, a four to five and a half minute shootout developed in which both perpetrators and two agents were killed, as well as five other agents z. T. were critically injured.

Perpetrator

William Russell Matix was born on May 25, 1951 in Lewisburg , Ohio . He attended New Madison High School in New Madison, Ohio and then the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park , New York . On October 7, 1969, he joined the United States Marine Corps , where he reached the rank of sergeant , before he moved to the United States Army after three years and there after an airborne training in the military police. From 1981 to 1984 he worked as a helicopter mechanic for the National Guard . Matix was married twice and had two children.

On December 30, 1983, William Matix's first wife was stabbed to death , along with a colleague at work at Riverside Hospital in Columbus . Although there was much to be said for his perpetrator, Matix could not prove the crime. Unusually, he had taken out high life insurance for his wife, two witnesses had testified that Matix had confessed to the crime, and he also refused a polygraph test offered by the police.

Michael Lee Platt was born on February 3, 1954 in San Diego , California . He attended KOFA High School in Yuma , Arizona and joined the United States Army on June 27, 1972 , where he spent seven years a. a. served in the Special Forces, served as platoon commander, and reached the rank of staff sergeant . Platt was married three times and had a son from his first marriage.

On December 21, 1984, Michael Platt's first wife died from a gunshot. Officially, her death is considered a suicide, but after his criminal career became known, together with the murder of von Matix's wife, a crime by Platt was not ruled out.

Matix and Platt met while serving together at the Fort Campbell military base in Kentucky and became good friends. After their military service, they worked together in a department store that belonged to a relative of Platt.

Series of robberies and murders

On October 5, 1985, Platt and Matix shot a young driver to get his golden Chevrolet Monte Carlo , which they then used for their robberies. The driver's body was only found on January 16, 1986. On October 16, 1985, in riot suits, they robbed a money truck on 104th Street in Miami. The money transporter escaped, however, whereupon the two shot an already disarmed security guard; he was seriously injured and lost his left leg as a result of the attack. They then covered their escape with a military smoke bomb.

On November 8, 1985, the two men raided the Florida National Bank on the South Dixie Highway and looted around $ 10,000. Just 90 minutes later, they raided the Professional Savings Bank on the South Dixie Highway and looted $ 41,469. On January 10, 1986 there was another raid on a money transporter on the South Dixie Highway. The perpetrators shot a security guard and stole around $ 54,000.

On March 12, 1986, the two men captured a black 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo on 16th Street and knocked the owner down with four shots. However, he survived with severe injuries and was able to report the theft of his car and make a phantom image of William Matix. On March 19, 1986, the stolen car was used to raid the Barnett Bank on the South Dixie Highway, and the perpetrators stole 8,338 dollars.

Attempted arrest and shooting

Location of vehicles during the shootout

On April 11, 1986, 14 FBI agents in ten vehicles looked for the stolen Monte Carlo along the South Dixie Highway, as the FBI was certain that this vehicle would be used for the next robbery. In addition, this April 11th was Friday, the day when most of the raids occurred. Shortly after nine in the morning, Special Agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove spotted the stolen car and quietly took up the chase in their civilian vehicle. Shortly thereafter, special agents Richard Manauzzi, Gordon McNeil, John Hanlon, Edmundo Mireles , Gilbert Orrantia and Ronald Risner joined the chase in four other civilian vehicles. Since the two perpetrators repeatedly turned into side streets and suddenly reduced their speed, the officers knew that they had been exposed and therefore decided to push the perpetrators' vehicle off the road in order to keep them away from more densely populated areas.

After a short chase and several rams, the FBI vehicle with John Hanlon and Edmundo Mireles came off the road and crashed into a wall. A few seconds later, around 9:32 a.m., the perpetrators also left the street and, flanked by the FBI vehicle with Richard Manauzzi at the wheel, drove into a tree in front of the apartment at 12201 Southwest on 82nd Avenue in Kendall. Gordon McNeill stopped next to Manauzzi's vehicle, while Hanlon and Mireles had left their disabled car and were walking to McNeill's. Across the street, Gilbert Orrantia and Ronald Risner had taken up position under the protection of their company car, while Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove's company car came to a stop behind Manauzzi's vehicle.

The shooting began when Matix, while still at the wheel, fired a shotgun at Agent Manauzzi's vehicle, the pellets of which partially penetrated the vehicle and hit the officer in the back and back of the head. Manauzzi, who had also lost his service weapon in the impact, crawled injured and unarmed behind a wall. Platt opened fire from the vehicle with his Ruger Mini-14 , hit Agent McNeill in the right hand, who could no longer reload his weapon, and shot Agent Mireles in the left forearm, who then fell to the ground. Matix was also hit three times by the agents and was injured in the car. When Platt jumped outside through the passenger side window, he was hit by a projectile from Agent Dove's pistol, which penetrated his right upper arm, penetrated the chest and injured the right lung. After he got up and continued shooting, he was hit again in the right thigh, left foot and right forearm.

However, Platt got up one more time and continued to fire the Mini-14 at the agents, Orrantia was injured by metal splinters from his hit car and could not continue shooting and McNeill was hit in the spine, whereupon he could no longer move. Platt now tried to reach Grogan and Dove's official car, behind which, in addition to these two officers, there was also Hanlon. After a brief exchange of fire, Hanlon was hit in the right hand and went down, Grogan was struck down with a shot in the chest. Then Platt leaned over the injured Hanlon and shot him in the groin , while Dove was unable to shoot back due to a jam and was then shot in the head by Platt. Then he shot Dove in the back of the head and got into his company car, in which Matix had now also worked his way up. In the meantime only Agent Risner shot the perpetrators, but they were unimpressed and tried to put the car into operation.

Mireles then saw the motionless Hanlon lying behind the intended getaway car, which would have been run over if the perpetrators had escaped because the getaway car was blocked in front by the Manauzzi car. Seriously injured, lying down and with only one hand intact, he fired a pump gun at the perpetrators five times, but this had no effect. Mireles managed to get up again with great effort, took a revolver, went to the car and shot the two perpetrators from a short distance.

Agents involved

The two agents killed: Jerry Dove and Benjamin Grogan

Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove died in the shootout. You were the 36th and 37th FBI agents killed on duty. Grogan was less than a year from retirement, while Dove had just graduated from the FBI Academy four years ago. On May 15, 2001, a portion of 82nd Avenue in Pinecrest, between 120th and 124th Streets, was renamed Agent Jerry Dove Avenue and Agent Benjamin Grogan Avenue in memory of the two agents . In 2015, the FBI regional headquarters for South Florida in Miramar was named after the two agents killed ( Benjamin P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove Federal Building ).

Edmundo Mireles was the first FBI agent ever to be awarded the FBI Medal of Valor and was named Police Officer of the Year. After his recovery, he went to the FBI Academy in Quantico , Virginia, as an instructor . Gordon McNeill had to undergo multiple operations due to his gunshot wounds in the spine and was only able to rejoin the FBI after a three-year rehabilitation phase. John Hanlon retired from the FBI and after his recovery worked as an investigator for a law firm. Richard Manauzzi and Gilbert Orrantia were able to leave the hospital on the same day and continue to work for the FBI together with Ronald Risner.

Admission to training

The incident was also included in the training program for budding FBI agents to better prepare them for street fights with heavily armed criminals.

Because although the perpetrators were known to be trigger-happy and an exchange of fire had to be expected if they were attacked, only Agent McNeill had put on his protective vest , and there was already some chaos before the shooting began. Agents Hanlon and Mireles were involved in a traffic accident after a failed ramming attempt, Agent Manauzzi lost his armament and could no longer intervene during the entire shooting, Agent Grogan had lost his glasses and the only FBI vehicles with semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns were not involved in the persecution of the perpetrators. It so happened that within five minutes seven of the eight agents were gunned down.

Change of armament

With his semi-automatic Ruger Mini-14 with 30-round magazines and years of training with the Special Forces, Michael Platt was superior in terms of weapons technology and tactics. William Matix could only fire one shot from a pump gun, injuring Agent Manauzzi, while Platt with 42 shots from the Mini-14 killed two agents and injured four.

The agents, on the other hand, had ten handguns and two forearm repeater shotguns , but these were usually only five or six rounds, which required frequent reloading. With the revolvers, this was made more difficult by the fact that each individual cartridge had to be inserted into the cartridge chambers by hand, which not only increased the reload times enormously, but also became almost impossible under heavy fire and with injuries. Furthermore, the caliber also played a role, since the previous caliber of service weapons could not develop a sufficient man-stopping effect; Matix was only unable to fight after six, Platt after twelve body hits. As a result of these findings, the semi-automatic pistol Smith & Wesson 1076 in the caliber 10 mm car was uniformly introduced at the FBI .

Media processing

TV

In 1988, the incident was filmed by director Dick Lowry under the title " In the Line of Duty: The FBI Murders " (German title: "FBI: Merciless"). The film also shows the private lives of the perpetrators and agents, the robberies and investigations, as well as the subsequent shooting. Ronny Cox , Bruce Greenwood , Michael Gross , Douglas Sheehan and David Soul are represented in the lead roles .

literature

  • The Ayoob Files: The Book , by Massad Ayoob (written processing of several shootings, including the one in Miami)
  • Unintended Consequences , by John Ross (novel documenting the history of gun culture, gun ownership and gun control in the United States)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Street name in Pinecrest ( Memento from August 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ FBI dedicates new South Florida headquarters to two fallen agents
  3. ↑ Edmundo Mireles
  4. ↑ Gordon McNeill
  5. ↑ Forgotten Heroes

Web links