Episode 17

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Published on:

15th Jul 2025

FBI Hero Shot Twice - How He Ended History's Deadliest Fight - Part 1

"When you're fighting for your life, anything and everything is an option." - Ed Mireles, FBI Agent (Rtd.)

On April 11, 1986, FBI Special Agent Ed Mireles faced the most violent confrontation in Bureau history during the Miami firefight that would forever change how law enforcement officers are armed and trained.

This is Part 1 of Ed's incredible story - from tracking the mysterious "Unknown Gang" of bank robbers through South Florida to the moment when everything went wrong. Two former 101st Airborne soldiers, Michael Platt and William Matix, had terrorized the region with military precision, killing every witness until one man survived to tell their story. When FBI agents finally located them on that fateful Friday morning, a routine surveillance turned into a deadly chase through Miami neighborhoods.

Armed only with six-shot revolvers and shotguns, eight FBI agents confronted two heavily-armed, military-trained killers in what became known as the bloodiest day in FBI history. Ed's story reveals the shocking disparity in firepower, the split-second decisions that determined life and death, and the moment when he took two devastating hits but refused to give up. "This is survivable," he told himself as bullets flew overhead - a mindset that would prove prophetic.

Key Timestamps:

  • 8:45 - The Unknown Gang's reign of terror
  • 23:08 - Spotting the stolen Monte Carlo
  • 25:26 - The high-speed chase begins
  • 32:51 - Outgunned: six-shot revolvers vs. military weapons
  • 45:35 - Ed's "this is survivable" moment
  • 51:40 - Setting up the impossible survival story

Don't miss Part 2 to discover how Ed survived the impossible and ended the deadliest firefight in FBI history. Support our law enforcement heroes at CitizensBehindTheBadge.org.

#LawEnforcement #FBI #PoliceSacrifice #HeroesBehindTheBadge #EdMireles #MiamiFirefight #PoliceSupport #ThinBlueLine

Transcript
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(Music)

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Dennis Collins to Heroes Behind the Badge.

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Dennis Collins I'm your host, Dennis Collins.

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Dennis Collins I'm a proud law enforcement father.

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Dennis Collins I'm the founding director

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Dennis Collins of Citizens Behind the Badge.

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

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Dennis Collins Bill Erferth and Craig Floyd.

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

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Dennis Collins basking in the glory of his beloved

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Dennis Collins Florida Panthers winning a

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Dennis Collins second Stanley Cup Championship.

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Dennis Collins Billy, are you still smiling?

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Dennis Collins Are you still happy?

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Bill Erfurth I am still partying and

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Bill Erfurth dancing in the streets.

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Dennis Collins As well, you should.

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Dennis Collins Although, unfortunately, in their

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Dennis Collins celebration, as you know,

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Dennis Collins they damaged the Stanley Cup.

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Dennis Collins That could be costly.

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Bill Erfurth That's happened every year.

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Bill Erfurth They just fix it right up.

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Dennis Collins They fix it right up.

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Dennis Collins Bill is a decorated 26 year veteran of

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Dennis Collins the Miami-Dade Police Department, now the

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Dennis Collins Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.

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Dennis Collins How about that?

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Dennis Collins They finally have a sheriff there.

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Dennis Collins And he is a founding director

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Dennis Collins of Citizens Behind the Badge.

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Dennis Collins As always, Bill, you always like to

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Dennis Collins remind our viewers and listeners, I like

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Dennis Collins the way you do this.

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Bill Erfurth All right.

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Dennis Collins We would appreciate it.

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Dennis Collins Craig Floyd.

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Dennis Collins Craig Floyd is our founder.

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Dennis Collins He is our president and CEO

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Dennis Collins of Citizens Behind the Badge.

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Dennis Collins But you probably know Craig best as the

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Dennis Collins founder and chairman emeritus of the

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Dennis Collins National Law Enforcement Officers

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Dennis Collins Memorial and the

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Dennis Collins museum in Washington, D.C.

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Dennis Collins A few weeks ago, Craig was awarded the

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Dennis Collins highest honor that can be earned from the

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Dennis Collins National Law Enforcement Officers

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Dennis Collins Memorial, the prestigious John Ashcroft

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Dennis Collins Lifetime Achievement Award.

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

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Dennis Collins at the awarding of this.

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Dennis Collins Craig, it's so well deserved.

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

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Dennis Collins did a whole episode on Craig and how the

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Dennis Collins law enforcement

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Dennis Collins memorial became a reality.

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Dennis Collins It's a fascinating story.

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Dennis Collins You got to go to it.

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Dennis Collins Craig, again,

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Dennis Collins congratulations on the award.

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Dennis Collins Congratulations for your lifetime of

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Dennis Collins service to law enforcement.

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

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Craig Floyd It's my personal pleasure.

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Craig Floyd You know that.

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

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Craig Floyd that award ceremony.

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Craig Floyd And today we have such a special guest.

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Craig Floyd This is somebody who I'm being reunited

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Craig Floyd with after 34 years.

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Craig Floyd He was there with us, a featured speaker

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Craig Floyd when we dedicated the National Law

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Craig Floyd Enforcement Officers Memorial.

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

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Craig Floyd us here today on Heroes

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Craig Floyd Behind the Badge podcast.

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

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Craig Floyd can't wait to get into it

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Craig Floyd with him.

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Dennis Collins Let's give this gentleman a proper

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Dennis Collins introduction he so richly deserves.

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

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

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Dennis Collins United States Marine

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Dennis Collins veteran, two tours in Vietnam.

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Dennis Collins He joined the FBI in

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Dennis Collins September of 1979 and 1985.

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Dennis Collins He transferred to the Miami field office

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Dennis Collins law enforcement family.

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Dennis Collins He and his wife both served 25 years and

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Dennis Collins retired from the FBI, author of two

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Dennis Collins books, FBI, Miami Firefight, Five Minutes

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Dennis Collins That Changed the Bureau and Hostage

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

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Dennis Collins book coming out late this year that I

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Dennis Collins hope we'll talk about during our time

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Dennis Collins together, named I

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Dennis Collins think I got it right, Lalo.

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Dennis Collins Ed's that was his undercover name.

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Dennis Collins Don't tell anybody.

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Dennis Collins Secret, secret compilation of undercover

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Dennis Collins cases during his FBI career.

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Dennis Collins As with most of our guests who have

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Dennis Collins served distinguished law enforcement

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Dennis Collins careers, many achievements, notable

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Dennis Collins accomplishments for decades.

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Dennis Collins There's one day that

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Dennis Collins changes their lives forever.

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

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Dennis Collins were preparing to conduct a rolling

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Dennis Collins stakeout looking for two ruthless,

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Dennis Collins violent criminals,

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Dennis Collins bank robbers, murderers.

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Dennis Collins They were called the Unknown Gang.

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Dennis Collins They were running rampant up and down US

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Dennis Collins one in South Dade County, Florida,

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Dennis Collins especially on Fridays.

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Dennis Collins But Morellus and his and seven of his

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Dennis Collins fellow agents made contact with these bad

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Dennis Collins guys on Southwest 82nd Avenue in Dade

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Dennis Collins County in the Dade

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Dennis Collins County village of Pinecrest.

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Dennis Collins What followed would be one of the most

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Dennis Collins dramatic and deadly

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Dennis Collins encounters in FBI history.

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Dennis Collins Morellus was the first agent ever to be

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Dennis Collins honored with the FBI medal

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Dennis Collins of valor on April 10th, 1990.

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

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Dennis Collins IACP police officer of the

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Dennis Collins year award to Ed Morellus.

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Dennis Collins This story has been

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Dennis Collins told many, many times.

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

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

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Dennis Collins so we never, ever,

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Dennis Collins ever forget our heroes.

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Dennis Collins Ed, a warm welcome to

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Dennis Collins heroes behind the badge.

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Dennis Collins We are delighted to

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Dennis Collins have you as our guest.

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Ed Mireles Thank you, Dennis.

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Ed Mireles It's a pleasure to be here.

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Ed Mireles And it's a pleasure to reconnect with

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Ed Mireles Craig again, after 34 years.

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Ed Mireles Yes, indeed.

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Ed Mireles Great, great deal.

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Dennis Collins That is great.

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Dennis Collins Well, I feel a little connection.

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Dennis Collins I was the general manager of three radio

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Dennis Collins stations in Miami at

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Dennis Collins the time of this incident.

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Dennis Collins And my I think I was telling you before

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Dennis Collins we started, the news director called me

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

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

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

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Dennis Collins And of course, the scanners were all lit

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Dennis Collins up with the Dade County police at that

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

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Dennis Collins clean up the mess, the aftermath they got

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Dennis Collins there after the fact.

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Dennis Collins But, you know, it was

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Dennis Collins it was unbelievable.

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Dennis Collins It was chaos, as you know.

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

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

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Dennis Collins again, this amazing story.

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Dennis Collins Thank you.

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Dennis Collins Let's turn it over to Craig.

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Dennis Collins Craig, I know you

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Dennis Collins guys have met each other.

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Dennis Collins And there's obviously a connection.

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Dennis Collins Bill Erforth serving so many years in

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Dennis Collins Miami Dade as a police

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Dennis Collins officer and lieutenant.

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

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Craig Floyd Glad when we selected the representative

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Craig Floyd of law enforcement in America to speak at

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Craig Floyd the National Law Enforcement Officers

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Craig Floyd Memorial dedication.

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

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Craig Floyd knew your story a few years earlier, you

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Craig Floyd had heroically ended what they call the

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Craig Floyd bloodiest day in FBI history.

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Craig Floyd And I certainly want to share that story

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Craig Floyd here today with our audience.

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Craig Floyd Let's start with the suspects and what

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Craig Floyd led to this shootout on April 11 1986.

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Craig Floyd Two suspects you were after

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Craig Floyd Michael Platt and William Maddox.

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Craig Floyd And take it from here.

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Craig Floyd Who were these people you were after?

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Craig Floyd And what have they done that led to this

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Craig Floyd arrest situation and

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Craig Floyd ultimately the shootout?

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

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Ed Mireles part about this whole about the

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Ed Mireles initiation of this case.

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Ed Mireles At the time, right before the shooting

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Ed Mireles and the weeks and months previous, we had

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Ed Mireles no idea who these guys were.

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Ed Mireles I tell people I said they were ghosts.

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Ed Mireles They were phantoms.

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Ed Mireles They would just appear on Fridays

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Ed Mireles usually, be a bunch of gunfire.

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Ed Mireles Sometimes it'd be dead people.

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Ed Mireles Sometimes they'd be wounded

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Ed Mireles people and then disappear.

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Ed Mireles I mean, they really were phantoms.

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

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Ed Mireles Because witnesses couldn't tell us

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Ed Mireles whether they were white,

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Ed Mireles black, Hispanic or male or female.

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Ed Mireles Really.

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

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Ed Mireles until after the shootout

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Ed Mireles happened that we knew who they were.

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

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Ed Mireles weeks before the shooting.

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Ed Mireles They had assaulted a gentleman out of

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Ed Mireles Hialeah, Florida, where he was out target

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Ed Mireles shooting in the Everglades.

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Ed Mireles They shot him and left him for dead.

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Ed Mireles And they stole his black Monte Carlo.

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Ed Mireles And that gentleman,

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Ed Mireles Jose Correaso was so lucky.

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Ed Mireles He was shot three times.

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Ed Mireles And he was about a

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Ed Mireles mile into the Everglades.

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Ed Mireles And he had a strong will to survive.

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Ed Mireles He had a decision to make after after

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

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

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Ed Mireles know, took everything from him.

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Ed Mireles He had to make a choice.

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Ed Mireles Do I stay here and die?

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

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Ed Mireles And he decided to try to survive.

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Ed Mireles So he staggered about a mile from where

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Ed Mireles he was shot out to the nearest highway.

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Ed Mireles And he waved down some a passing vehicle

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Ed Mireles passing, I think it was a

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Ed Mireles station wagon or something.

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Ed Mireles And the people in that car

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Ed Mireles got him to a phone and call 911.

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Ed Mireles And he ended up at Miami hospital.

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Ed Mireles So he was our first live witness.

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Ed Mireles I mean, that was really the first person

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Ed Mireles that saw these guys that survived up

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Ed Mireles until that time,

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Ed Mireles everybody that saw him died.

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Ed Mireles So even though we had a good description

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Ed Mireles of these guys, there were two white

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Ed Mireles males, about six feet, six

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Ed Mireles feet one, six, six foot two.

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Ed Mireles Slender had a military bearing, and they

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Ed Mireles drove a white pickup truck.

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Ed Mireles That's all the information we had up

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Ed Mireles until the up until after the gunfight.

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Ed Mireles So based on the information that we had,

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Ed Mireles that happened on March 12.

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Ed Mireles In 1986, we started doing surveillance is

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Ed Mireles in South Miami, from those of you that

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Ed Mireles are familiar with that

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Ed Mireles area, US one, and South Miami.

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Ed Mireles And I mean, it was, I

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Ed Mireles mean, we had nothing.

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

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

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

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Ed Mireles officers, agents, and

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Ed Mireles hopefully we'll get lucky.

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

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Ed Mireles of our surveillance is the lead was to go

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Ed Mireles out there and take down the license plate

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Ed Mireles of any light colored

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Ed Mireles pickup truck in South Florida.

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

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Ed Mireles for a lead, you know?

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

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Ed Mireles that unbeknownst to him, had taken down a

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Ed Mireles tag of a pickup truck that passed them.

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

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

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Ed Mireles being Maddox's pickup truck.

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Ed Mireles So people say, well,

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Ed Mireles what does that matter?

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

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Ed Mireles pickup truck, you know, separated them,

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Ed Mireles okay, all the female owners discard them,

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Ed Mireles all the black and Hispanic owners discard

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Ed Mireles them, and you're left with a

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Ed Mireles pool of potential suspects.

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Ed Mireles So we would have whittled down the list,

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Ed Mireles you know, we would have

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Ed Mireles shown them photo spreads to Mr.

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Ed Mireles Carriasso.

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Ed Mireles And eventually, we would have identified

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Ed Mireles who the shooter was, who the background

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

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Ed Mireles But what ended up happening was what I

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Ed Mireles call intuitive policing.

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Ed Mireles Our supervisor, Gordon McNeil,

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

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Ed Mireles training with Ben Grogan, the case agent.

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

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Ed Mireles about we set up a surveillance tomorrow?

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Ed Mireles And he and Ben had a conversation.

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Ed Mireles And I know this because Gordon told me

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Ed Mireles that what happened, you

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Ed Mireles know, after the shooting,

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Ed Mireles he said he and Ben discussed it.

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Ed Mireles And Ben asked him,

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Ed Mireles Gordon, what do you know?

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

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

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Ed Mireles I don't know about?

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Ed Mireles No.

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

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

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Ed Mireles Number two, when they hit

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

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

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Ed Mireles And number three,

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Craig Floyd just to break up, how many bank robberies

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Craig Floyd had they committed up to this point?

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Ed Mireles Bank and armored truck robbers, you know,

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Ed Mireles we can combine them together.

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

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Ed Mireles confirmed robberies.

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Ed Mireles Okay, but there were an additional 12 to

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Ed Mireles 14 robberies that had the same MO that

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Ed Mireles had the same style of robbery.

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Ed Mireles So we think they were good for anywhere

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Ed Mireles from between 12 to 15

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Ed Mireles robberies in South Florida.

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Ed Mireles But we could only link positively link

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Ed Mireles them to six through forensics evidence.

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

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

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Ed Mireles they hit was three weeks ago, but the

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

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Ed Mireles And tomorrow is Friday, payday Friday.

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Ed Mireles Those of us old timers that

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Ed Mireles know what payday Friday is.

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Ed Mireles So he said, Hey, I

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Ed Mireles think I think they're due.

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Ed Mireles I've got a hunch.

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

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

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Ed Mireles you know, just, you know, intuitive

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Ed Mireles policing, you know, a good,

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Ed Mireles good hunch by a good, good agent.

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Bill Erfurth So Ed, I want to jump in real

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Bill Erfurth quick and ask you something.

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

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Bill Erfurth about the victim that was

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Bill Erfurth shot out in the Everglades.

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Bill Erfurth And I think the timeline of that was

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Bill Erfurth about a month prior.

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Bill Erfurth How is that or how was that tied in

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Bill Erfurth together so that it wasn't an isolated

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Bill Erfurth incident, that it was just another random

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Bill Erfurth crime that happened in the Everglades.

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

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Bill Erfurth that point and think, wow, maybe these

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Bill Erfurth guys are our bank robbers?

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

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

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

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

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Ed Mireles it was a gold colored Monte Carlo.

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

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Ed Mireles brand gets into there.

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Ed Mireles But that car belonged to Emilio Briel.

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Ed Mireles He went to target practicing and, you

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

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Ed Mireles to the Everglades to target

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Ed Mireles practice and he disappeared.

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Ed Mireles He never, he, he was

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Ed Mireles never seen alive again.

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Ed Mireles That was about a week after his

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Ed Mireles disappearance, you know, we started

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Ed Mireles getting a rash of armored

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Ed Mireles truck and bank robberies.

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Ed Mireles And people would say, hey, the getaway

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

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Ed Mireles car, you know, a white car.

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

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

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Ed Mireles stressed out when people point guns in

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

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Ed Mireles People are funny that way,

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Ed Mireles right?

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Bill Erfurth And just a little bit.

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Ed Mireles So,

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles until January of 1986 that

Speaker:

Ed Mireles we recovered the stolen car.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles A witness followed the bank robbers to a

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Burger King in the area close

Speaker:

Ed Mireles to the bank that was robbed.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles He saw them switch from the stolen car,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles from the bank robbery car to their

Speaker:

Ed Mireles personal car, which is a pickup truck.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, so he drove back.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles in.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth Okay.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So had the misfortune of going to target

Speaker:

Ed Mireles practice in the same place where Emilio

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Briel had been targeted practicing.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles accosted and shot and left for dead.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles 19th, a week after he

Speaker:

Ed Mireles was shot and left for dead.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles We had a bank robbery at the Barnett bank

Speaker:

Ed Mireles at 136th street and South Dixie highway.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I think Barnett, the Barnett company has

Speaker:

Ed Mireles been bought out by somebody else, you

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles called Barnett bank, there was a US

Speaker:

Ed Mireles customs inspector that was driving into

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles morning to cash a check.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And I make fun of people.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I make fun of people, the young kids

Speaker:

Ed Mireles today, I have to hold

Speaker:

Ed Mireles up a piece of paper.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles instrument that you had to sign to go

Speaker:

Ed Mireles into a bank to get your money.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles running out of the bank with, with long

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles had dark clothing on jump into a black

Speaker:

Ed Mireles car back out of the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles parking space and speed away.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Well, when they backed up, they backed

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the rear end of the car towards his

Speaker:

Ed Mireles position, being a law enforcement

Speaker:

Ed Mireles officer, a customs guy,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles he jotted down the tag.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So we had a confirmed sighting of the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles black Monte Carlo that was stolen from

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Jose Correaso to an actual

Speaker:

Ed Mireles bank robbery a week later.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So the customs officer said it was the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles tag was NTJ 891, which matched exactly to

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles it.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth kind of tie in for everyone that's

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth listening is you mentioned that this was

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth the same location out of the Everglades

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth that they had gone at least for a second

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth time when this had happened.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth this now, these guys

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth were both in the military.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth They both had, you know, pretty

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth significant military backgrounds and they

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth met together when they were in the

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth military and became friends and then

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth ultimately came together after they were

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth both honorably discharged.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth So was there some real connection as to

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth why they would go to this

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth location in the Everglades?

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth Was it because they went out there and

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth they would shoot there also,

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth or was that ever determined?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles We could never ever determine that they

Speaker:

Ed Mireles shot there except for

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the following information.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles There, there were girlfriends, wives, you

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, whatever they had at the time that

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the robberies told us that these guys

Speaker:

Ed Mireles used to go shooting every week.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles They practiced every week.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And you're from, you're

Speaker:

Ed Mireles from, from the Dade County area.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Briel and Jose Coyasso used to shoot.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It's out there in the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Everglades off the Tamiami Trail

Speaker:

Ed Mireles between, you know, right before you get

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles an area there where people shoot.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles shell casings, just like walking on a

Speaker:

Ed Mireles brass highway, a brass sidewalk.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles There's so much ammo out

Speaker:

Ed Mireles there that's been fired.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles there's a common, common area.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles back then there were no houses out there.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles but so it was a common area.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles robbers probably also went out there to

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles happened when they, they, they shot and

Speaker:

Ed Mireles left Coyasso for dead.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles They were out there in their pickup truck

Speaker:

Ed Mireles with their weapons and they were firing,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles they were practicing.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And then somewhere along the time, a few

Speaker:

Ed Mireles minutes after they got there, they turned

Speaker:

Ed Mireles around and decided to attack Coyasso.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles They came up behind him, you know,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles pointed their weapons at him and said,

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles whatever, and give us

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the keys to your car.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Craig Floyd a second to help our audience understand

Speaker:

Craig Floyd the depth of evil

Speaker:

Craig Floyd that these guys sunk to.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd You mentioned their

Speaker:

Craig Floyd girlfriends and wives.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd There is suspicion.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Craig Floyd hundred percent, but they were suspicion

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Craig Floyd died under mysterious circumstances.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd One was stabbed to death along with a

Speaker:

Craig Floyd researcher at a hospital, I believe.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd And the other was an apparent suicide,

Speaker:

Craig Floyd but it was never proven.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd And the suspicion was that Maddox and

Speaker:

Craig Floyd Platt may have killed their own wives.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd So, I mean, this is the despicable

Speaker:

Craig Floyd characters we're talking about that will

Speaker:

Craig Floyd stoop to no depths too

Speaker:

Craig Floyd deep to commit evil acts.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd And it's almost unbelievable to think

Speaker:

Craig Floyd there are people in this world that are

Speaker:

Craig Floyd like them in that regard.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd And yet you had to go up with against

Speaker:

Craig Floyd them on April 11, 1986.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Craig Floyd surveilling, you spot the vehicle, and

Speaker:

Craig Floyd all hell breaks loose.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd Talk us through that.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Actually, it was Ben Grogan and Jerry

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Dubb riding in the same unit together

Speaker:

Ed Mireles that spotted the car.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles They were at the Barnett bank that I

Speaker:

Ed Mireles mentioned before that had

Speaker:

Ed Mireles been robbed on March 19.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And this is speculation on our part

Speaker:

Ed Mireles because all four witnesses that were

Speaker:

Ed Mireles involved in this

Speaker:

Ed Mireles little incident are dead.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Ben and Jerry are dead, and

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the two bank robbers are dead.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So we can't get information.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles based on trying to reconstruct the event,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the black Monte Carlo must have driven

Speaker:

Ed Mireles into the parking lot of the Barnett bank.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles marked unit parked in front

Speaker:

Ed Mireles of the bank as extra security.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So they probably drove in, saw the marked

Speaker:

Ed Mireles unit, made a circle around the parking

Speaker:

Ed Mireles lot and started leaving.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles or Jerry saw the black car circling

Speaker:

Ed Mireles around the parking lot.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So they decided to follow it and they

Speaker:

Ed Mireles couldn't see the tag.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So they followed it north on US 1.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles to catch up with it and verify that the

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Cuyasso stolen Monte Carlo.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles about all hell breaking loose.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It's like, I remember

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the worst of this day.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I mean, they're, you

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, lasered into my mind.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Ben Grogan called out attention.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles All units were behind a black vehicle two

Speaker:

Ed Mireles door, wrote a tag NTJ 891.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles We're headed north on

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the South Dixie Highway.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles that these guys were that bold, that

Speaker:

Ed Mireles brazen to be in a stolen car.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles They didn't even

Speaker:

Ed Mireles change the tags on the car.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, they weren't dumb.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I think they may have been just daring

Speaker:

Ed Mireles us, daring law enforcement to stop them.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles idea what their real motivation was.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles description of the car and the tag number

Speaker:

Ed Mireles had been publicized all over South

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Florida from, from Orlando down to Key

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles were, they were, they

Speaker:

Ed Mireles were looking for the car.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And here they are on a Friday morning,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles just driving around in a stolen car.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So what followed was a short surveillance

Speaker:

Ed Mireles that turned into a real

Speaker:

Ed Mireles short high speed chase.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles stolen Monte Carlo, ended up playing

Speaker:

Ed Mireles bumper cars on Southwest 82nd Avenue, so

Speaker:

Ed Mireles that we were Southbound.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So there was a series of crashes and

Speaker:

Ed Mireles banging and rear ending and so on and so

Speaker:

Ed Mireles forth, you know, and what,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles as luck would have it, we ended up

Speaker:

Ed Mireles ramming them or Richard Manousine ended

Speaker:

Ed Mireles up ramming the, the stolen Monte Carlo

Speaker:

Ed Mireles into a driveway against some civilian

Speaker:

Ed Mireles cars and up pinned up against a tree.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And he pinned them on the left side on

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the left side of his

Speaker:

Ed Mireles left side of the stolen car.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd He penned them.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd This is a residential

Speaker:

Craig Floyd neighborhood, as I remember, right?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Correct, right.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It's in front of a duplex.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It wasn't our choice.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles why did you stop them there?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And I have to laugh at people.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles many types of car stops are there?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And I get all kinds of answers, high

Speaker:

Ed Mireles risk, low risk, you

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, Bellamy, non-Bellamy.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles only two kinds of car stops.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles you pull over to the side

Speaker:

Ed Mireles when you get pulled over.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And then there's a

Speaker:

Ed Mireles non-compliant car stop.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles it.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth So, Yeah.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth And like you have any

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth luxury in that decision, right?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Exactly.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I don't care.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles No.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles that, you know, they,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles they, they get a boat too.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And they said, no,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles we're not going to stop.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles cement wall, which would have been

Speaker:

Ed Mireles perfect because the backdrop would have

Speaker:

Ed Mireles been a cement wall in

Speaker:

Ed Mireles case there's a gunfight.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles But they had a choice that they got a

Speaker:

Ed Mireles boat and they said, no,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles turn into a non-compliant stop.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So we ended up

Speaker:

Ed Mireles crashing in front of a duplex.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles things, you know, so after we crashed

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles four and a half, five minute gunfight.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd So, so Four and five

Speaker:

Craig Floyd rounds were fired, as I recall.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd Is that right?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Say that again, Craig.

Speaker:

Craig Floyd 145 rounds fired during this exchange.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles There, it's an estimate

Speaker:

Ed Mireles between 140 and 150 rounds.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And, and people said, well,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles how can that be an estimate?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles You know, well, let

Speaker:

Ed Mireles me give you an example.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles uh, a nine millimeter pistol.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles He fired 15 rounds from one magazine and

Speaker:

Ed Mireles he fired half of a second magazine.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles He fired seven rounds.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So that is 22 shell casings that should

Speaker:

Ed Mireles have been on the ground

Speaker:

Ed Mireles from his pistol alone.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Medivac helicopter landed right in the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles middle of the, of the crime scene.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And you know how helicopters are.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles They just, the downdraft just

Speaker:

Ed Mireles blows stuff all over the place.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So they only found,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles uh, Ron fired 22 shots.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles They only found seven

Speaker:

Ed Mireles of his shell casings.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So there were shell casings missing all

Speaker:

Ed Mireles over the place, you know?

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles rounds fired were

Speaker:

Ed Mireles between 140 and 150 rounds.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth yeah, there were a lot of really

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth unfortunate circumstances or, or errors

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth that came along with this.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth people that aren't familiar with this

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth different collisions along the way till

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth you finally were able to trap their

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth vehicle and immobilize them.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth were lying on the seat, they ended up

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth going out the door or they ended up on

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth the floorboard and they didn't even have

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth access to those weapons.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth And so that kind of puts you guys a

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth little bit at a disadvantage.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth nine millimeter pistol, but some of the

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth agents were only armed with 38 revolvers

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth or perhaps a shotgun or two.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth And this is an interesting thing because

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth There were people running around Mary

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth Alito Cubans, the Colombian cartels.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth There were, there were six to 10 murders

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth happening every day to the point that

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth there were so many murders, the Dade

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth County medical examiner's office couldn't

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth keep the bodies and they went to the

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth Burger King headquarters in Miami and

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth rented out refrigeration trucks just to

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth stack and store the dead bodies.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth So this is the timeframe of

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth when your incident happened.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth rifle or a weapon, but your story and

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth this situation in many ways transformed

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth law enforcement and how they

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth thought of arming themselves.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth And so let's get into that

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth whole shootout mindset scenario.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth about the exchange of gunfire and how you

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth guys were in fact outgunned until finally

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth the bad guys were killed.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles perfectly for what happened.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles many times, you know, why

Speaker:

Ed Mireles weren't you better armed?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles You know, and I'm thinking,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles what are you talking about?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Why wasn't I better armed?

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles you know, you're

Speaker:

Ed Mireles preaching to the choir here.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles But then I turned the table on them and

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles carrying, you know, something that you

Speaker:

Ed Mireles want to carry and simply put an

Speaker:

Ed Mireles unauthorized weapon,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles okay, are you going to carry that

Speaker:

Ed Mireles unauthorized weapon or unauthorized

Speaker:

Ed Mireles ammunition and then run the risk of being

Speaker:

Ed Mireles fired and or prosecuted by your agency?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And they go, well, what

Speaker:

Ed Mireles are you talking about?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Say, hey, police officers, law

Speaker:

Ed Mireles enforcement officers are only allowed to

Speaker:

Ed Mireles carry what their departments issue them.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Magnum, you know, on my

Speaker:

Ed Mireles own and carry it on duty.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles then I'm in violation of

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the rules and regulations.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, brings them back in line, brings

Speaker:

Ed Mireles them back to reality.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So I have to remind remind people that,

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles police officers, agents were the only

Speaker:

Ed Mireles authorized weapons we were we were

Speaker:

Ed Mireles allowed to have were six shot revolvers.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles That's it.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And we weren't even

Speaker:

Ed Mireles allowed to carry rifles.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles At least in the cities, the agents out

Speaker:

Ed Mireles West working the reservations out in

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Idaho and Montana, they

Speaker:

Ed Mireles could carry 308 rifles.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay, but I was allowed

Speaker:

Ed Mireles to carry only a shotgun.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So I was armed with my

Speaker:

Ed Mireles shotgun and my 38 revolver.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles That's it.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I mean, that was that

Speaker:

Ed Mireles was the order of the day.

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Ed Mireles Unfortunately, we came up and you

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Ed Mireles mentioned, you know, these guys's

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles been Craig, you cannot overlook the fact

Speaker:

Ed Mireles that plant maddox were army trained.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles our our military forces today, they're

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the best in the world.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Some of the best troops in the world are

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Delta forces and so on and so forth.

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles 101st airborne are some of the best

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Ed Mireles troops in the world.

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Ed Mireles They're highly, highly trained.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles and so on and so forth.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles That's what these two guys

Speaker:

Ed Mireles platin maddox had as background.

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Ed Mireles They were 101st airborne.

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Ed Mireles Okay, now they may have only been

Speaker:

Ed Mireles military police in the airborne, but they

Speaker:

Ed Mireles were still airborne.

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Ed Mireles Okay, so they were highly trained.

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Ed Mireles And as we found out during the shootout,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles they were highly

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Ed Mireles trained and heavily armed.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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Ed Mireles So Platt had the 30 round

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Ed Mireles magazine in an assault rifle.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It's an assault style rifle.

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Ed Mireles And his partner had a 12 gauge shotgun.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So that rifle tipped

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Ed Mireles the balance towards them.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I mean, there were eight eight FBI agents

Speaker:

Ed Mireles against two bank robbers.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles But that rifle evened the odds because

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Ed Mireles that rifle, you know, had more more

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Ed Mireles rounds in one magazine, I had six rounds

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Ed Mireles in my, my six shot revolver.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles have to reload five

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Ed Mireles times to fire 30 rounds.

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Ed Mireles He just had to keep pulling the trigger

Speaker:

Ed Mireles firing, firing 30 rounds.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles had had an evidence bag that

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Ed Mireles was found in in one of the cars.

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Ed Mireles He had an additional four or five 30

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Ed Mireles round magazines in their equipment bag.

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

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Ed Mireles Okay, he only fired two two magazines.

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Ed Mireles Paul, he fired 60 rounds from

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Ed Mireles the from the from the rifle.

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

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Ed Mireles a lot of rounds, you know, especially

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

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Ed Mireles So but no, these guys were were highly

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Ed Mireles trained and heavily armed.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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

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Ed Mireles my book is that there's,

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Ed Mireles there's two sides to survival.

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Ed Mireles There's a physical side.

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

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Ed Mireles know, cover concealment, maneuver,

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

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Ed Mireles know, shooting and stuff like that.

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Ed Mireles The other side of

Speaker:

Ed Mireles survival is psychological.

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

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

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Ed Mireles horror, I guess, of a gunfight.

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

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Ed Mireles amount of people that have no idea.

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Ed Mireles I mean, they have no idea whether they

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Ed Mireles could or couldn't do it.

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Ed Mireles We as law enforcement officers trained

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Ed Mireles trained for that every day.

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

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Ed Mireles And these two guys had that mindset.

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Ed Mireles Okay, because they were well trained.

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Ed Mireles And they were well armed.

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Ed Mireles Okay, so and the military bearing, I

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Ed Mireles guess they had, they had

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Ed Mireles this military bearing that even

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

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Ed Mireles they looked like they were military, they

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Ed Mireles were they were very disciplined, very,

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

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

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Ed Mireles their eyes didn't wander around looking

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

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Ed Mireles attention to the topic.

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Ed Mireles So they were they were

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Ed Mireles tremendous adversaries.

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

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Ed Mireles somebody, that's that

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Ed Mireles you don't want to run.

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Ed Mireles If you want to meet somebody that you

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

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Ed Mireles highly trained, heavily armed, highly

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Ed Mireles motivated guys, okay.

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Craig Floyd And that's what they were pointed.

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Craig Floyd You talk about their their emotional

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Craig Floyd state, their psychology of survival.

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Craig Floyd They were actually hit

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Craig Floyd early on in the gun battle.

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Craig Floyd Is that not true?

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Craig Floyd They were both wounded, and yet they

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Craig Floyd somehow miraculously, you know, revive

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Craig Floyd themselves and kept shooting.

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Ed Mireles Right.

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Ed Mireles The driver of the Monte Carlo who at that

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

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Ed Mireles He was shot through the wrist,

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Ed Mireles the right wrist when he was aiming his

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Ed Mireles shotgun at Ben Grogan.

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Ed Mireles And then right immediately after that

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Ed Mireles little exchange, Gordon McNeil, the

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Ed Mireles supervisor shot him twice.

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Ed Mireles Once right here in the in the face.

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

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Ed Mireles what they call the brachial plexus, the

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Ed Mireles shoulder area, it severed his

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Ed Mireles artery and and the his vein.

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Ed Mireles Forget what the mains are.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles But not femoral.

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Ed Mireles The artery that controls brachial artery

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Ed Mireles and the brachial vein up here and the

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Ed Mireles brachial bundle, nerve bundle.

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Ed Mireles So basically, Gordon just this, this this

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Ed Mireles tool right here, this this

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Ed Mireles right arm just went down.

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Ed Mireles I mean, he severed it completely.

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

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

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Ed Mireles in the face with a

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Ed Mireles with a bullet like this.

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Ed Mireles It'll knock you out.

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Ed Mireles Okay, I mean, it'll

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Ed Mireles knock you unconscious.

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Ed Mireles And depending in how long you're

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Ed Mireles unconscious depends on the individual.

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

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

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Ed Mireles probably unconscious for only about, I

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles regained consciousness again.

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

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Ed Mireles he would, I'm speculating.

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Ed Mireles But he knew he was in trouble.

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

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Ed Mireles And eventually he does on his own, you

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

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Ed Mireles out of the stolen Monte Carlo gets out of

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Ed Mireles the car and goes over to hide behind some

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Ed Mireles of the civilian vehicles in the driveway.

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Ed Mireles Okay, and eventually he makes it to Ben

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Ed Mireles Grogan's car to try to escape.

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Ed Mireles So yeah, they were highly motivated.

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Ed Mireles Absolutely.

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Ed Mireles And then getting back to the plant.

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Ed Mireles He was shot.

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Ed Mireles The very first hit he got was through his

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Ed Mireles right arm, it severed

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Ed Mireles his brachial artery.

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

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Ed Mireles his right side of his chest, the round

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Ed Mireles penetrated his right lung.

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Ed Mireles And it stopped about an

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Ed Mireles inch short of his heart.

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Ed Mireles Excuse me.

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Ed Mireles I talked to a doctor about that.

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Ed Mireles And that doctor said that it was a non

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Ed Mireles survivable hit that he took.

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Ed Mireles And that hit was put

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Ed Mireles on him by Jerry Dove.

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Ed Mireles Like the first hit he got the first hit

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Ed Mireles plant received was a non survivable hit.

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Ed Mireles He was basically a walking dead man.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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Ed Mireles Unfortunately, he went on, he survived

Speaker:

Ed Mireles another two three minutes.

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Ed Mireles And in that timeframe, he kept fighting

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Ed Mireles and fighting and

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Ed Mireles fighting trying to escape.

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Ed Mireles And he goes on to injure more agents and

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, as a result of that.

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth So the question there would be, is there

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Bill Erfurth some kind of psychological thing was he

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

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Bill Erfurth both flying high on adrenaline?

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Bill Erfurth And that's what kept them

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Bill Erfurth standing and returning fire.

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Bill Erfurth Or was there some kind of post autopsy

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Bill Erfurth toxicology report that they

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Bill Erfurth were full of dope or something?

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

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Ed Mireles know, I always teach my audience, you

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

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

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

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

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles did have coffee in their system.

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Ed Mireles You know, but I said it was Colombian

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Ed Mireles coffee, you know, so that was

Speaker:

Bill Erfurth a copy of the, the decade there.

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Speaker 5 You know,

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

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Ed Mireles Columbia, they take too many hits as it

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles dealers, but no, they had

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Ed Mireles Danish coffee in their system.

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Ed Mireles That's all they had.

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Ed Mireles These guys were, were a fitness fanatics.

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

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Ed Mireles they weren't survivalists per se, but

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Ed Mireles they were survivalists before survivalist

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Ed Mireles or preppers were, was a thing.

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Dennis Collins Yeah.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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

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Ed Mireles know, they occasionally would jog, but

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Ed Mireles they were very fit and very conscious

Speaker:

Ed Mireles about their, their wellness and the way

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Ed Mireles they looked and the way

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Ed Mireles they presented themselves.

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Ed Mireles But getting back to the, the, the

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Ed Mireles psychological side of survival, I mean,

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Ed Mireles that, that comes from training.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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Ed Mireles I mean, granted, I mean,

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

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Ed Mireles end all to end alls, because there are

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

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Ed Mireles training that want, that want, have a

Speaker:

Ed Mireles strong will to survive.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles personal will to survive

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Ed Mireles and couple it with training.

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Ed Mireles Oh my God.

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

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles know, should have been dead, but they

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Ed Mireles kept functioning and

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Ed Mireles going and going and going.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Craig Floyd when we talk about the psychology of

Speaker:

Craig Floyd survival and how some people have it, and

Speaker:

Craig Floyd maybe others don't, you obviously had

Speaker:

Craig Floyd yourself because you

Speaker:

Craig Floyd were severely injured.

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

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Craig Floyd shooting hand, your left hand, your left

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Craig Floyd arm was debilitated

Speaker:

Craig Floyd early in the shootout.

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Craig Floyd And, and yet somehow you survived.

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

Speaker:

Craig Floyd Ben Grogan dead, Jerry doves died.

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Craig Floyd You have four other agents who were

Speaker:

Craig Floyd seriously injured by the gunfire.

Speaker:

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

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Craig Floyd survive some ability to fire without

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Craig Floyd having the other hand usable.

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Craig Floyd And you ended the gun shootout.

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Craig Floyd Tell us what was going through your mind

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Craig Floyd at that point in time and how you

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Craig Floyd ultimately ended it.

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Ed Mireles Well, I have to be honest with the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles listeners and the viewers, viewers, you

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

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles but

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Ed Mireles fear is not, I mean, fear is

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Ed Mireles not, what did churches say?

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Ed Mireles The only thing we have

Speaker:

Ed Mireles to fear is fear itself.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And you have to acknowledge fear.

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Ed Mireles I mean, everybody gets fearful or

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Ed Mireles apprehensive or some,

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Ed Mireles some level of anxiety.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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Ed Mireles And I was, I started

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Ed Mireles going through certain stages.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I became, when the surveillance started,

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles units were behind the stolen Monte Carlo.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I got apprehensive.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles When we started doing the bumper cars, I

Speaker:

Ed Mireles became a little fearful because I'm

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles where we're going to end up.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles But, and I was still fearful when the

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Ed Mireles bullets were flying, because

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Ed Mireles I ended up across the street.

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Ed Mireles I had to cross like 50 yards of open

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles subjects were because I had a shotgun and

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the effective range of a shotgun on paper

Speaker:

Ed Mireles might be 50 to 75 yards.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles But in reality, if you want to be

Speaker:

Ed Mireles effective against a human target, you,

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Ed Mireles you got to be closer.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles these guys, 25 yards and then.

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Ed Mireles So I ran across the street and the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles bullets are whizzing by me.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles there's nothing more exhilarating than

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles as long as the bullet

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles five, four and five, six millimeter.

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Ed Mireles The round hit me right here, right where

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Ed Mireles my little finger is.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

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Ed Mireles And

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

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

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Ed Mireles this position as I'm running across the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles street, I brought my, my shotgun up

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Ed Mireles because I had my muzzle pointing at

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Gordon McNeil and my supervisor's back.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I got to worry about safety.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So I brought the weapon up like this.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And that's when I got shot.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay, right here.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It would have been a whole

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Ed Mireles different, you know, story,

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

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles I mean, it was an amazing physiological

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Ed Mireles reaction, because when I took the hit,

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Ed Mireles okay, that round almost

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Ed Mireles ripped my forearm off my body.

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Ed Mireles The only thing holding my arm to my body

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Ed Mireles was this bottom section of meat, the

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

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Ed Mireles was just completely destroyed.

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Ed Mireles And the only thing holding it up, you

Speaker:

Ed Mireles know, holding it

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Ed Mireles attached to me was this part.

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Ed Mireles So here's, here's the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles good, the good part.

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles People have asked me, Hey,

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the eyes, I don't know.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles are you talking about, dude?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I said, Well, you know

Speaker:

Ed Mireles what, I mean, I was shot.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles several minutes after

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Ed Mireles the fact that I was shot.

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Ed Mireles Okay, because this was so the human body

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Ed Mireles is such a fantastic machine.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles my hand off my body, felt

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Ed Mireles no pain, none whatsoever.

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Ed Mireles Okay, I mean, I fell back

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Ed Mireles the physiological

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Ed Mireles reaction caused me to jerk back.

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Ed Mireles I was on my back, but I

Speaker:

Ed Mireles had no idea what happened.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles about a minute afterwards.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I had the shotgun in

Speaker:

Ed Mireles my right hand like this.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles arm to push myself up because shooting

Speaker:

Ed Mireles the shooting was still going on bullets

Speaker:

Ed Mireles are still flying over my head.

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles this, you know, need

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Ed Mireles to get into this action.

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

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Ed Mireles normal at that point in time, because,

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Ed Mireles you know, my physiological state, after I

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

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Ed Mireles into a different mode,

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Ed Mireles went to survival mode.

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

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

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Ed Mireles I was just like walking in slow motion or

Speaker:

Ed Mireles moving in slow motion, it

Speaker:

Ed Mireles was just kind of strange.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I was shot, I'm thinking,

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Ed Mireles why is my left arm not working?

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles up because I'm on my back.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles what the what's going on here.

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

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Ed Mireles visual inspection of my body, that I

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Ed Mireles realized that had been shot.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles apprehensive, and you're fearful.

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Ed Mireles Being honest with the audience here, when

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

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Ed Mireles my arm had all had practically been

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

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Ed Mireles I was terrified.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles But I had to maintain the discipline.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles mind, you know,

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles breathing, you feel no pain.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And I'm looking at it.

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles classes in the military and in the FBI,

Speaker:

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

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Ed Mireles thinking, Hey, this is survivable.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Okay, you have several minutes before you

Speaker:

Ed Mireles again, it's all up here.

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Ed Mireles Okay.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I said to us, I have several minutes

Speaker:

Ed Mireles before I get to a point

Speaker:

Ed Mireles where it becomes a threat.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So I just ignored it.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles Again, there's no pain.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So and I focused on the gunfight itself,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles looking for the rest,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles looking for threats.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And then I realized,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I tell people it gets better.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I realized, I saw movement out of the

Speaker:

Ed Mireles corner of my eye, I'm

Speaker:

Ed Mireles thinking, what the heck is that?

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles You know, I'm thinking,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles what the heck is that?

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I looked up and I'm

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles here across the temple area this way.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It's it.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles head, you know, but it just went

Speaker:

Ed Mireles underneath the skin, severed the temporal

Speaker:

Ed Mireles artery, and kind of kept going.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles like this, thinking, okay, and

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles doing this, I was compressing the wound.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles And this flap of skin that was there,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles pressed on the artery, artery and

Speaker:

Ed Mireles prevented it from

Speaker:

Ed Mireles from squirting blood out.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles It's still still bled,

Speaker:

Ed Mireles but it wasn't squirting.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles So I totally ignored that.

Speaker:

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

Speaker:

Ed Mireles time, because I was trying to survive and

Speaker:

Ed Mireles thinking, Hey, this is all survivable.

Speaker:

Ed Mireles I mean, I don't

Speaker:

(Music)

Speaker:

(Music)

Show artwork for Heroes Behind the Badge

About the Podcast

Heroes Behind the Badge
We tell REAL stories about REAL cops.  And we expose the fake news about police and give you the REAL truth.
From the front lines to the final call, Heroes Behind the Badge brings you the untold stories of America's law enforcement community. Led by Craig Floyd, who spent 34 years working alongside police officers across the nation, alongside veteran facilitator Dennis Collins and law enforcement expert Bill Erfurth, this podcast cuts through misconceptions to reveal the true nature of modern policing.

Our dynamic trio brings unique perspectives to each episode: Craig shares deep insights from his decades of experience and relationships within law enforcement, Dennis guides conversations with meticulous research and natural flow, and Bill adds engaging commentary that makes complex law enforcement topics accessible to all listeners.

Each episode features in-depth conversations with law enforcement professionals, sharing their firsthand experiences, challenges, and triumphs. Drawing from extensive research and real-world experience, we explore the realities faced by the over 800,000 officers who serve and protect our communities every day.

From dramatic accounts of crisis response to quiet moments of everyday heroism, our show illuminates the human stories behind the badge. We dive deep into the statistics, policies, and practices that shape modern law enforcement, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of what it truly means to serve in law enforcement today.

Whether you're a law enforcement professional, a concerned citizen, or someone seeking to understand the complexities of modern policing, Heroes Behind the Badge provides the context, insights, and authentic perspectives you won't find anywhere else. Join us weekly as we honor those who dedicate their lives to keeping our communities safe, one story at a time.

Presented by Citizens Behind the Badge, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for law enforcement professionals across the United States. Join over 126,000 Americans who have already signed our Declaration of Support for law enforcement at behindbadge.org.