Every officer with a decent amount of time on the job knows the unexpected turns an investigation can take. Seeing a major case through to completion often involves giving up on a theory and taking your investigation in a different direction as new information becomes available. In How to Catch A Criminal, we look at the many ways not-so-perfect crimes are solved. This month, two Agents pay the ultimate price to stop a pair of killers, and change Law Enforcement in the process.
Read How to Catch A Criminal: The 1986 FBI Miami Shootout (Part 1)
In May of 1986, an FBI task force charged with solving a string of armored car and bank robberies in Miami Florida located the men suspected of the crimes. Longtime friends and partners in crime, William Matix and Michael Platt were driving a stolen Chevrolet Monte Carlo and were armed with a stolen Ruger Mini-14 rifle, a shotgun, and few revolvers for good measure. After a brief pursuit and a crash which pinned their vehicle against a tree, Platt and Matix had the opportunity to surrender. Instead, they chose to fight their way out.
From the passenger seat of the crashed Monte Carlo, Michael Platt fired his stolen Mini14 rifle towards Grogan, Dove, and McNeil, the closest Agents to them. As the Agents scrambled to return fire, there was a serious problem: both Manauzzi and Hanlon had unholstered their revolvers during the car chase in order to be ready to fire in case the armed suspects became violent. Manauzzi had rammed the Monte Carlo, and Hanlon's car hit a wall trying to make an abrupt stop when the suspects crashed. Both men lost their weapons during the respective crashes. Hanlon armed himself with his back up snubnose revolver from an ankle holster, and Manauzzi was unarmed during the remainder of the fight. William Matix fired his shotgun from the driver seat, striking Agent Manauzzi twice. Agent McNeil fired all six rounds from his revolver into the suspect vehicle and took a rifle round to the arm before he took cover to reload behind his car.
Meanwhile, Agent Hanlon, armed only with his 5 round backup gun, ran towards Grogan and Dove's vehicle in an attempt to cover them, as the two agents were pinned down in their car as bullets were flying all around them. Agent Grogan managed to hit William Matix in the arm, and Agent McNeil followed up with rounds to the head and neck, which didn't kill Matix, but knocked him out for the majority of the shootout. Michael Platt jumped out of the Monte Carlo and took cover at the front of it, firing on the agents as they ducked from the hail of high-powered rifle rounds. Agent Mireles fired his shotgun at the bank robbers and ran to help McNeil, who had been just shot in the back by Platt. McNeil was temporarily paralyzed from the injury. As he ran to McNeil, Mireles was shot in the right arm, causing him to collapse. Agent Dove had managed to hit Platt with a 9mm round as he first exited the Monte Carlo, and the round traveled up Platt's arm, into his torso, puncturing a lung, and stopping just short of his heart. Somehow, Platt shrugged that off and kept firing his rifle. Agent Dove hit Platt in his thigh and ankle as he ducked behind another vehicle, but that didn't slow him down either. Platt transitioned to a pair of .357 revolvers and continued firing. Despite being shot again by both Orrantia and Risner, Platt managed to injure Orrantia thanks to shrapnel, and took Dove out of the fight by shooting the gun right out of his hand, destroying it. Hanlon attempted to reload his snubnose revolver but was shot in the hand, preventing him from getting back in the fight. Platt advanced on Grogan, Dove, and Hanlon who were at the back of their vehicle, trying to fix Dove's pistol. Platt shot and killed Grogan and Dove and fired an additional round into the already injured Hanlon. Agent Mireles was able to recover enough to pick himself up and fire his shotgun, putting buckshot into both of Platt's feet. Platt jumped into the driver seat of Grogan and Doves car and Matix regained consciousness just in time to exit the Monte Carlo and join him in the FBI vehicle. Mireles, with one arm, fired and reloaded the shotgun until it ran empty, but his accuracy was hindered by his wound. Mireles was worried his fellow agents who were down at the back of the vehicle were going to be run over as the robbers backed up to make an escape. Heroically, he drew his 357 revolver and rushed the shooters, firing until empty and getting closer to the vehicle with each shot.
Mireles struck Matix three times in the face, severing his spinal cord, killing him. Two additional rounds missed Platt. With one round left, Agent Mireles fired from the passenger door of the vehicle into Michael Platt's chest, finally killing him. That was the final round of over 140 fired between FBI Agents and the suspects in the insane 5-minute-long firefight that turned the South Dixie Highway into a war zone. Just as Mireles ended the threat, Miami-Dade Police Officers and six additional task force Agents began arriving and rendering aid to the injured Agents. Both suspects were dead, Agents Grogan and Dove were dead, Mireles, McNeil, and Hanlon were critically injured but survived, Manauzzi and Orrantia suffered non-life threatening injuries, and Risner was the only man not to be injured in the firefight. Despite the seeming impossibility of Platt and Matix being able to continue fighting despite being shot over and over in critical areas, an autopsy would reveal neither man was under the influence of alcohol or drugs during the shooting.
Stemming from this incident, the FBI transitioned away from 5 and six shot revolvers, because the frequency of having to stop and reload left the agents vulnerable to the high capacity Mini 14 rifle on numerous occasions. The ammunition used in the firefight was also heavily scrutinized. The .357 magnum, .38 +p, and 9mm rounds available in 1986 did not have the stopping power necessary to stop Platt, or keep Matix down. This led to the development of the .40 S&W round, which had greater stopping power, and was used in higher magazine capacity pistols. Platt had the eight agents severely outgunned with his lone rifle. This incident, combined with the 1997 North Hollywood Shootout, began a national push to get shotguns and rifles in every police vehicle so that law enforcement would not be at a disadvantage in these critical situations.
