◆ SpookStack

Never fc get tomers. fell - .. ee their courage | : THE MIAMI NEWS Miami,Fl . g OO Date: Page 8A _. It was the worst shooting in the long, storied history of the _lEgtion, BROWARD Federal Bureeu of investigation. Two agents brutally slaln by April 14, 1986 3 suspected bank robbers who possessed an arsenal Al Capone would have envied. Five other agents wounded. The two suspected bank robbers dead after # wild shootout busted foose In ["H*: & bormally quiet weighbarhood off U.S. 1 near the Dide Belle sbopping Center. . | As revealing as those details are, they do not tellthe whole jcnavscter: story 6f what happened last Friday morning when agents or Beufumia Grogan and Gerald Dove made the ultimate sacrifice in lcwssiicgton: the line of duty. The real story {s one of courage, of FBI agents Submitting OMe: ayy ayy riaking and giving up thelr lives to protect the restofus,and = - Gemonstrating again that when law enforcement officers work the streets nothing is routine. _- - The agents were prepared for trouble. They called in | reinforcements before they pulled over the two suspects who 2 were driving a stolen car that hed been used {na robbery. But the agents could not be prepared for the weapons that awaited them or for the homicidal and guicidal nature of those who were Ce primed to kill and ready to Be killed. : Common sense and courage rode with the FB! agents last ’ Friday morning, even lf good luck did not. They made their move only after pursuing the suspects Into a quiet nelghborhood. After | g the shooting began, witnesses reported, the agents raised their guns several times az uninvolved motorists drove through the cross fire. The agents’ assailants extended no such courtesies. Before one of the agerts finally succumbed, he kept lifting Aimself to fire at his assaljants, a witness reported. Another agent who was seriously wounded, Ed Mireles, crawled to confront the killers as they aoughi to flee in one of the FB] vehicles, and Mireles fired the bullets that finally ended the battle. Herolsm on the job is not rare, but it is often unappreciated. fn this instance the performances and the sacrifices of the agents “should be deeply appreciated by all. It may appear to be small comfort to the familles of Agents Grogen and Dove to be told what they had known all along: that the men they loved upheld | - ‘the highest standards of thelr profession and lived up to the > highest expectations of humanity. But that Is a deep well from which relatives, friends and colleagues can draw support. FBI Director Willan Webster sald after the tragedy, “Ag in , law enforcement everywhere, dedicated men and women put - thelr lives on the ne each day for all of us, This la a violent world, but it would be much worse without thelr fidelity, their bravery and their integrity.” In few areas Is that sentiment more ‘appropriate thanin Dade County. © 6 |e . ; Paychiatrista, psychologists and criminologists never understand exactly what lay behind the actions of the killers. Though nameless and faceless to law enforcement agents before the shootout, the two men Jn the stolen car were suspected bank -gobbers, armored car robbers, even cold-blooded murderers. At - the same time, as it turns out, they were considered to be family men. No one knows yet, however, whether they acted alone, or whether anyone who knew them suspected they lived other lives. . The pieces of this bizarre puzzle may never ft right. woe ee oe hae et remains baffling, too, why some motorists ignored <= > 7 ” ~ “warnings to steer clear of the area where the shootout, which . lasted more than five minutes, was taking place. Perhaps it's the same inane end selfish reason that leads zome motorists to ignore _ police or fire-rescue vehicles that are speeding down the highway “with thelr emergency lights flashing and thelr grens walling. ouhnd the macebre curiosity that hires crowds to see and otherwise * pense death is & pari of mankind’s makeup that rons contrary to ‘the courage which often creates the scenes that draw the crowds. yo *. As the community mourns for Agents Grogan and Dove, and eal hopes for the speedy and thorough recovery of the other . wounded agents, it should also encourage the FBI gnd other law ee wes wht it enforcement agencles to complete anv other Investieatians thet "7°: + 070 Fes =