Florida history: The bloodiest day ever for the FBI

Eliot Kleinberg
·3 min read
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The 1980s was a scary time in South Florida, with drug dealers and other criminals shooting up the area on a regular basis. The criminals at the center of that era’s most terrifying such confrontation were two landscapers.

With all the great FBI actions over the years, during Prohibition and against mobsters and communists, the morning of April 11, 1986 – 35 years ago – stands as the agency's bloodiest day ever. It involved no fewer than seven agents, two of whom died. The agency estimated that 145 shots were fired in a matter of minutes.

Police investigate the scene of a shootout in Miami on April 11, 1986, which left two FBI agents and two armed robbery suspects dead and five other agents wounded. A bullet-proof vest can be seen in the lower right corner of the photo, near blood-stained pavement at the foot of officer.
Police investigate the scene of a shootout in Miami on April 11, 1986, which left two FBI agents and two armed robbery suspects dead and five other agents wounded. A bullet-proof vest can be seen in the lower right corner of the photo, near blood-stained pavement at the foot of officer.

(A personal note: While I no longer lived in the area at the time, the scene of this shootout, now bearing a historical marker, was just blocks from my high school.)

FBI Director James Comey unveils a three-panel memorial display that tells the story of the “1986 FBI Miami Shootout” inside the main lobby of the Benjamin P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove Federal Building in Miramar, Florida, on April 11, 2016.
FBI Director James Comey unveils a three-panel memorial display that tells the story of the “1986 FBI Miami Shootout” inside the main lobby of the Benjamin P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove Federal Building in Miramar, Florida, on April 11, 2016.

Fatal firefight in Miami

Here’s more from the FBI’s web pages: The feds were looking for William Matix, from Ohio, and Michael Lee Platt, from San Diego, who favored high-caliber guns and stolen cars. The two had come to Miami in 1984 and started a landscape service. But they were suspected in numerous violent robberies since the fall, including one in March 1986 just blocks from where the shootout would ensue.

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Investigators survey the bloody scene of a shootout in which two FBI agents were killed and five agents wounded in Miami on April 11, 1986. Two armed robbery suspects were also killed in the shootout. The bloody clothing and shoe of one of the dead FBI agents can be seen beneath the rear of the car, which had been used by the FBI before to the shootout.

Near the Suniland shopping center, Miami-based special agents Benjamin Grogan, 53, and Jerry Dove, 30, were in one of five cars tailing the two, who were in a stolen Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Miami FBI Special Agents Benjamin Grogan, left, and Jerry Dove.
Miami FBI Special Agents Benjamin Grogan, left, and Jerry Dove.

The criminals pulled off U.S. 1 and down a side street behind a Farm Stores drive-thru convenience store. Agent Richard Manauzzi, 43, alone in one car, tried to steer the car into a tree. One of the criminals aimed a gun. Three FBI cars rammed their car. The two men opened up with a rifle, a shotgun and revolvers.

Two FBI agents, foreground, help wheel one of two FBI agents shot and killed during a gun battle to a waiting hearse at the scene of a shootout in which five other agents were wounded in Miami on April 11, 1986. Two armed robbery suspects were also dead in the incident, which erupted when agents spotted a vehicle with license plates matching those of a vehicle used in a series of robberies of banks and armored cars.

Manauzzi, seriously wounded, dived for cover. Agent Gordon McNeill, 43 – also riding

alone – was hurt but returned fire, hitting Matix. Agents Gilbert Orrantia, 27, and Ronald Risner, 43, were pinned in their car, Orrantia already hit.

“We’ve got people down!” Risner shouted into his radio. “More people down here!”

Agents Edmundo Mireles, 33, and John Hanlon, 48, had stopped their car on the opposite side of the street and came under high-powered rifle fire and were seriously hurt, although they managed to hit the criminals several times. Platt came at Dove and Grogan and shot them dead in their car at close range. He also shot Hanlon.

Agent finally fires the fatal shots

Barely conscious, Mireles, using his one good hand, stood and began firing his shotgun at the criminals as they tried to escape in Dove’s and Grogan’s car. He got out his revolver and killed both men even as they returned fire.

The FBI count: two agents dead, three seriously wounded and two others injured. Only Risner was unhurt. The shootout forced the FBI to study its arsenal. The criminals used high-power weapons that even went through agents’ armored vests. The agency later made sure agents had stronger firepower.

Florida Time is a weekly column about Florida history by Eliot Kleinberg, a former staff writer for three decades at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, and the author of 10 books about Florida (www.ekfla.com).

Agents Killed or Harmed on April 11, 1986

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida History: Miami FBI shootout stands as agency’s bloodiest day ever

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