FBI Hero's One-Handed Miracle Shot - Part 2

Dennis Collins: 00:00:08

A warm welcome back to Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins: 00:00:11

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

Dennis Collins: 00:00:15

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

Dennis Collins: 00:00:21

incredible story from April 11th, 1986.

Dennis Collins: 00:00:25

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

Dennis Collins: 00:00:31

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

Dennis Collins: 00:00:36

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

Dennis Collins: 00:00:42

When we left Ed, he had been shot twice.

Dennis Collins: 00:00:45

His left arm was nearly destroyed.

Dennis Collins: 00:00:48

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

Dennis Collins: 00:00:51

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

Dennis Collins: 00:00:56

This is survivable.

Dennis Collins: 00:00:58

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

Dennis Collins: 00:01:03

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

Dennis Collins: 00:01:08

using just one arm and a shotgun.

Craig Floyd: 00:01:11

So with, with the bullets flying over your head and

Craig Floyd: 00:01:14

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

Craig Floyd: 00:01:18

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

Craig Floyd: 00:01:23

I'm not a gun guy.

Craig Floyd: 00:01:24

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

Craig Floyd: 00:01:28

got only one arm to use?

Ed Mireles: 00:01:30

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

Ed Mireles: 00:01:33

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

Ed Mireles: 00:01:38

what the, what my explanation is.

Ed Mireles: 00:01:41

They're looking for a. A pill.

Ed Mireles: 00:01:44

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

Ed Mireles: 00:01:47

And I don't have one for 'em.

Ed Mireles: 00:01:49

Um.

Ed Mireles: 00:01:51

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

Ed Mireles: 00:01:55

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

Ed Mireles: 00:01:58

I said, nope.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:00

Did you ever see it in a movie?

Ed Mireles: 00:02:01

I said, nope.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:02

Did you ever read it in the book?

Ed Mireles: 00:02:03

I said, no.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:05

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:11

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:14

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:18

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:19

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:21

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:25

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:30

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:31

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:33

I had to sit and fight.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:35

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:39

it's amazing how your brain under.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:42

Your mind is working.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:43

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:47

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:49

I had scenarios going through my mind.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:52

I was like, discarding them.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:53

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

Ed Mireles: 00:02:57

scenarios, different options.

Ed Mireles: 00:02:58

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:03

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:06

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:10

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:14

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:14

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:17

then you can get aid, you know?

Ed Mireles: 00:03:18

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:21

But anyway, getting back to what your question asked.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:23

Yeah.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:24

How did I do that?

Ed Mireles: 00:03:26

It just, it was an epiphany.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:28

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:29

I'm, I leaned up against the car.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:31

The way I'm sitting right now.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:32

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:36

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:38

'cause I, I maneuvered on my back.

Ed Mireles: 00:03:40

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:45

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:49

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:52

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

Ed Mireles: 00:03:57

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:00

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:03

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:05

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:09

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:13

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:16

the lip on the bumper right here.

Ed Mireles: 00:04:17

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:19

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:26

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:29

And I said, just let you know.

Ed Mireles: 00:04:30

Let it go.

Ed Mireles: 00:04:31

Press the trigger.

Ed Mireles: 00:04:31

Boom.

Ed Mireles: 00:04:32

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:37

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:41

I had the shotgun in my hand like this.

Ed Mireles: 00:04:43

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:47

down until it hits the ground.

Ed Mireles: 00:04:49

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:55

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

Ed Mireles: 00:04:59

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:05:01

Never trained it, never saw it in the movie.

Ed Mireles: 00:05:04

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:07

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:12

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:16

could I have come up with that?

Ed Mireles: 00:05:17

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:21

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:25

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:28

and everything is, is an option

Craig Floyd: 00:05:30

close.

Craig Floyd: 00:05:31

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:35

I was going back to, uh, wound ballistics.

Ed Mireles: 00:05:41

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:05:41

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:46

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:49

Uh, I'm bleeding out for three minutes.

Ed Mireles: 00:05:51

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:54

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

Ed Mireles: 00:05:57

things were getting dark.

Ed Mireles: 00:05:59

All, you know, around my, my vision.

Ed Mireles: 00:06:01

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:10

working my head would actually do this.

Ed Mireles: 00:06:13

And I'd have to shake myself awake.

Ed Mireles: 00:06:14

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:18

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:22

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:26

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:30

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:33

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:42

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:45

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:50

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:55

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

Ed Mireles: 00:06:57

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:02

my mind that I was going to die.

Ed Mireles: 00:07:05

Okay?

Ed Mireles: 00:07:05

Because I was doing this, I was going.

Ed Mireles: 00:07:08

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:10

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:15

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:18

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:26

There was no fear.

Ed Mireles: 00:07:27

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:07:27

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:29

Send me to Miami.

Ed Mireles: 00:07:30

You know, I'm gonna die.

Ed Mireles: 00:07:31

You know?

Ed Mireles: 00:07:32

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:36

'cause I've already it.

Ed Mireles: 00:07:37

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

Ed Mireles: 00:07:41

Okay, so what else can people do to you?

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:43

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:48

that's the end of this gun fight.

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:50

It's pretty dramatic gun fight, obviously.

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:52

Mm mm-hmm.

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:53

How many times did you rack that shotgun?

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:56

Do you know?

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:57

Five times.

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:59

Five times.

Bill Erfurth: 00:07:59

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:08:04

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:08:08

So five times.

Bill Erfurth: 00:08:09

That's incredible.

Ed Mireles: 00:08:11

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:14

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:18

your mind is scanning for options.

Ed Mireles: 00:08:20

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:21

No, that's, that's stupid.

Ed Mireles: 00:08:22

This is good.

Ed Mireles: 00:08:23

This may work.

Ed Mireles: 00:08:24

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:26

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:08:27

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:31

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:35

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:38

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:43

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:47

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:51

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

Ed Mireles: 00:08:55

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:08:57

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:01

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:05

And so I'll be at the car.

Ed Mireles: 00:09:06

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:10

So,

Ed Mireles: 00:09:12

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:09:16

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:19

Yeah, I was in the hospital for

Ed Mireles: 00:09:24

a little over.

Ed Mireles: 00:09:25

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:32

Okay for a year.

Ed Mireles: 00:09:33

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:38

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:40

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:44

responded, she's also an agent.

Ed Mireles: 00:09:45

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:48

She was doing all the talking.

Ed Mireles: 00:09:50

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

Ed Mireles: 00:09:56

train, you know, so, um.

Ed Mireles: 00:09:59

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:02

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:06

gonna have to amputate your arm.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:07

And I'm thinking, oh, come on.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:08

You gotta be kidding me.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:09

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:11

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:14

would've been a. Huge miracle.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:16

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:18

So what's her?

Ed Mireles: 00:10:19

I said, what's her second option?

Ed Mireles: 00:10:20

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:23

the second option, amputation.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:25

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:28

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:30

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:34

We need to check his arteries.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:36

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:41

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:47

able to reach the hand and the fingers.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:49

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:52

We can't save the hand.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:53

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:10:54

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

Ed Mireles: 00:10:58

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:01

the arteries were intact.

Ed Mireles: 00:11:02

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:05

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:09

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:11:10

So, uh, I had.

Ed Mireles: 00:11:13

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:16

was just to clean up the wound.

Ed Mireles: 00:11:17

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:21

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:24

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:27

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:29

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:33

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:37

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:40

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:43

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:47

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

Ed Mireles: 00:11:51

50% is better than no percent.

Ed Mireles: 00:11:53

You know, you know,

Craig Floyd: 00:11:54

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

Craig Floyd: 00:11:58

this, the recovery took o over a year.

Craig Floyd: 00:12:01

Um, you're severely injured.

Craig Floyd: 00:12:03

You almost died.

Craig Floyd: 00:12:04

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

Craig Floyd: 00:12:09

on to serve 25 years before you retired.

Craig Floyd: 00:12:12

Why, why go back at that point in time?

Craig Floyd: 00:12:14

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:19

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:21

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:26

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:31

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:35

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:12:35

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:39

I mean, um.

Ed Mireles: 00:12:42

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:46

You know,

Ed Mireles: 00:12:49

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:52

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

Ed Mireles: 00:12:55

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:00

Miami, Miami at some point in time.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:01

It was such a great job.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:04

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:07

job even if you didn't pay me.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:09

You know, I mean, it was that fantastic.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:11

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:14

helping people, you know, helping.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:16

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:21

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:27

who do I want to confront that person?

Ed Mireles: 00:13:29

My, my mother.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:30

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:32

My sister.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:34

No.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:35

Your mother, your sister.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:36

No.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:37

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:41

guys like me, guys and women like me.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:44

You know where, where I was young.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:46

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:51

and for 1980 I was well armed.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:54

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:13:54

Who were you gonna send?

Ed Mireles: 00:13:55

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

Ed Mireles: 00:13:58

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

Ed Mireles: 00:14:02

people to send to confront these people.

Ed Mireles: 00:14:05

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:14:05

And I loved my job.

Ed Mireles: 00:14:07

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:14:07

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

Ed Mireles: 00:14:11

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

Ed Mireles: 00:14:14

You know, medically retired and that, that really terrified

Ed Mireles: 00:14:17

me more than getting shot.

Ed Mireles: 00:14:19

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

Ed Mireles: 00:14:22

something constructive, you know?

Ed Mireles: 00:14:23

And you know what they say?

Ed Mireles: 00:14:24

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:28

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:32

relate to Miami during the eighties.

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:33

We both worked.

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:35

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:38

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:43

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:50

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:14:55

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:02

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:07

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:10

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:14

wild, ruthless, and dangerous.

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:16

No, and you know, you're your.

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:19

Suspects in your shooting situation.

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:22

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:25

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:29

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:32

Yeah.

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:33

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:38

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:44

Yeah, yeah.

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:44

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:50

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:15:56

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:01

You were seriously wounded.

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:02

The other, you know, all of you guys.

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:05

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:11

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:17

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:22

crazy people running around with weaponry.

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:25

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

Bill Erfurth: 00:16:29

in the hell does this even work?

Ed Mireles: 00:16:31

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:32

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:35

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:38

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:41

our, our to help us, you know?

Ed Mireles: 00:16:43

And.

Ed Mireles: 00:16:43

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:46

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:50

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:53

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

Ed Mireles: 00:16:56

you know, I mean, you know.

Ed Mireles: 00:16:58

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:02

and, and, and Miami Beach and Broward.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:04

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:07

work the front lines, you know?

Ed Mireles: 00:17:09

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:13

a, uh, sometimes we deserve it.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:15

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:19

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:23

we were quite, quite honestly, we were.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:25

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:30

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:32

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:33

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:39

you're not giving us all the information.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:41

And I'm thinking, wow.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:43

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:48

source in the, the mountains of Pakistan.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:52

Okay?

Ed Mireles: 00:17:53

And.

Ed Mireles: 00:17:54

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

Ed Mireles: 00:17:57

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:00

terrorists in this house.

Ed Mireles: 00:18:02

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:05

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:08

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:18:09

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:11

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:13

from the locust because we were.

Ed Mireles: 00:18:15

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:19

on in the mountain in Pakistan.

Ed Mireles: 00:18:21

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:18:22

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:25

up the, the information somehow.

Ed Mireles: 00:18:27

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:31

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:36

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:39

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:41

Yeah.

Ed Mireles: 00:18:42

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:44

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:48

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:51

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:55

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

Ed Mireles: 00:18:59

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:07

I showed up.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:09

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:09

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:13

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:13

I just did what I had to do.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:15

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:16

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:21

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:22

They made the ultimate sacrifice.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:25

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:26

They, and, and I was there with them.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:28

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:30

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:34

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:38

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:39

And they never stepped back.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:41

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:41

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:46

Well, the estimated 140 shots were fired.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:50

They never stepped back.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:51

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:54

subsequently shot and killed.

Ed Mireles: 00:19:56

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

Ed Mireles: 00:19:59

Hey, they were at the tip of the spear.

Ed Mireles: 00:20:02

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

Ed Mireles: 00:20:06

the subjects this way, and I was off.

Ed Mireles: 00:20:09

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

Ed Mireles: 00:20:14

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

Ed Mireles: 00:20:20

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

Ed Mireles: 00:20:26

plan, and then execute that plan.

Ed Mireles: 00:20:28

Unfortunately, it was not.

Ed Mireles: 00:20:30

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

Ed Mireles: 00:20:34

So those two guys are my heroes.

Ed Mireles: 00:20:37

Okay.

Ed Mireles: 00:20:37

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

Ed Mireles: 00:20:41

I, I just showed up so.

Craig Floyd: 00:20:44

Well, you were quite the hero there, ed.

Craig Floyd: 00:20:46

Yeah.

Craig Floyd: 00:20:47

I don't want you to take.

Dennis Collins: 00:20:48

Yeah.

Craig Floyd: 00:20:49

Too little of the credit.

Craig Floyd: 00:20:50

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

Craig Floyd: 00:20:54

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

Craig Floyd: 00:20:59

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:04

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:07

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:13

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:17

Certainly help.

Craig Floyd: 00:21:18

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:21

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:25

more of the detail and the heroics.

Craig Floyd: 00:21:27

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:32

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:37

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

Craig Floyd: 00:21:41

What a story, what a, how do you.

Dennis Collins: 00:21:43

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

Dennis Collins: 00:21:46

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

Ed Mireles: 00:21:50

Yeah, absolutely.

Dennis Collins: 00:21:51

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

Dennis Collins: 00:21:54

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

Dennis Collins: 00:21:59

a lot about this story since I kind of.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:01

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

Dennis Collins: 00:22:04

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

Dennis Collins: 00:22:09

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

Dennis Collins: 00:22:14

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

Dennis Collins: 00:22:20

and you spoke to your mindset of survival.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:23

This, I, I love your mantra.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:25

This is survivable.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:27

This is survivable.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:29

That is a lesson for all of us.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:31

Mm-hmm.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:32

If you could survive what happened to you?

Dennis Collins: 00:22:37

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

Dennis Collins: 00:22:42

Mm-hmm.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:42

So I take that lesson from your heroic behavior.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:46

This is survivable.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:47

Thank you for that.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:48

Thank you for planning that, that that is an excellent

Dennis Collins: 00:22:51

mantra that we should all use.

Dennis Collins: 00:22:53

And in your case, it probably saved your life.

Ed Mireles: 00:22:57

Absolutely.

Ed Mireles: 00:22:59

And thank you gentlemen for having me as a guest.

Ed Mireles: 00:23:01

I really appreciate it.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:01

Well, your story is unbelievable.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:04

Thank you, ed.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:05

Thank you.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:05

You are a true hero behind the badge.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:09

Thank you for sharing your story, ladies and gentlemen.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:13

Our audience.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:14

Thank you as always for viewing and for listening.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:17

Uh, this has been another episode of Heroes Behind the Badge.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:22

We tell real stories about real cops, and today's guest was a real cop.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:28

We expose the fake news about the police and we tell you the real truth.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:34

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Dennis Collins: 00:23:38

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Dennis Collins: 00:23:40

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Dennis Collins: 00:23:42

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Dennis Collins: 00:23:47

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Dennis Collins: 00:23:50

Okay.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:53

And be sure to follow, like, uh, please follow and like.

Dennis Collins: 00:23:59

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Dennis Collins: 00:24:00

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Dennis Collins: 00:24:06

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Dennis Collins: 00:24:07

Okay.

Dennis Collins: 00:24:08

Thanks for watching.

Dennis Collins: 00:24:09

Thanks for listening.

Dennis Collins: 00:24:10

We'll see you next time on Heroes Behind The Badge.