The Miami Firefight in 1986 was a pivotal moment in law enforcement tactics and equipment. The changes were born of an abnormal shootout in Miami between the FBI and two bank robbers they were trying to apprehend.
The confrontation began on the morning of April 11th, 1986. The FBI had taked some of their agents to work vehicle stakeoutes, attempting to find certain cars related to suspects or the bank itself being robbed.
The perpetrators Platt and Maddox, had met years earlier, and had started robbing banks together the year prior. They also carried out murders at an unofficial local shooting area to procure weapons and vehicles to commit their crimes. They attempted to murder a man, leaving him for dead and stealing his Chevy Monte Carlo.
During their patrols, FBI agents Grogan and Dove began following a Monte Carlo suspected of being the stolen vehicle. As they tailed the vehicle, more agents joined the pursuit. A stop of the vehicle was initiated, which resulted in several cars being pinned in place next to each other.
When the shooting began, some of the agents had lost their guns in the crash, some had to extract themselves through the window, and some had line of sight issues. The entire shooting was a madhouse, with shotguns, revolvers and semi autos all at play. In the end, 9 of 10 agents were shot, 145 rounds were exchanged, while two agents and both suspects were killed.
This event, being such a prolonged event with determined killers, became a lesson to agencies and departments across the United States.
There are other events in history that have become touchstones of firearms training at large, and law enforcement training specifically. The Newhall shooting taught us lessons about training modes needing to be best fighting practices, not just out of convenience. The North Hollywood shootout was pivotal in adding rifles to the police officers daily load out.
Over the next few months, we will use examples from this shootout to show different aspects of training and preparation. If you have a deeper interest in the subject, I highly recommend Ed Mireles' book, FBI Miami Firefight: Five Minutes that changed the Bureau. Mireles was one of the agents involved in the shootout, and therefore has a unique perspective on the event.
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