◆ SpookStack

_Rissed his daughter “goodbye. > 5, Four agents down. The time: 9:21. Returning fire Matix kept bobbing up and down beside the Cutlass Uke a carnival target -—- only he was returning fire. Reisner concentrat- ed on Matix. One slug ricocheted off the roof of the Cutlass and kxiged in a trim board on the rool of the duplex. Another struck the Camaro, tearing a strip of paint from the front hood. Thet bullet, too, bounced off and lodged in the roof. . Floally, Reisner hit his mark. - He got Matix in the left forearm, and the slug ruptured ap artery. A coroner would later describe this as a “spurting wound.” It sprayed blood Io a narrow fet, ali over the ground and the side of the car. . What it falied to do was siop The gunman crept eway Irom Reisner toward the trunk of the Cutlass -— and toward agents Grogan, Dove and Hanlon. Relsner no longer had a clear shot. He screamed at Grogan, Dove and Hanlon. toe “He's coming around! He's com- ing around!” The three agents, still crouched behind the trunk ef Grogan's jemon-yellow Buick, were concen- trating on Platt. They didn't hear Reisner. And they didn't see Matix — until it wag too late. Suddenly he was leaning over the trunk of Grogan's Bulck. He was aiming the Ruger. Last words “Oh, my God!" Grogan gasped. "2 was the fast thing he said. Matiz shot Grogan once fp the chest, severing the sorta. The egent died instantly. Matix then shot Dove four times, twice in the head. He too died fnstantly. Hanlon, without emmunition, lay on the ground. Matix shot him jo the groin, and Hanlon passed dut. . Seven agents down. _ Matix stepped over the two dead “ggents. He saw Mireles in the red windbreaker, sitting In the road behind the trunk of- McNelll’s LeSabre. The agent was dazed and Bleeding. - Matix fired and missed. Blood spurting trom his arm, Matix collapsed into Agent Gro- gan's car and pulled himself to the passenger side. . Piatt made his way around the front of Grogan’s car and started toward the driver's seat.“ - They were trying to get away. Mireles, 33, a huge, muscular. man of 250 pounds, was still on the ground. But be levered the shotgun up with his good right arm and fired. The blest struck Platt in the foot. He leaped into the car. Mireles fired at leas? two other times, the pellets ripping into the engine of the car. @ car wouldn't start. When Platt turned the ignition, the starter whined. No one can say No one, not even Mireles, can say precisely what happened next. Police sirens screamed in the distance, closer and closer. Agents lay dead and wounded around him, and Mireles had emptied the shotgun's. five rounds. The shell casings lay on the ground beside m . Agent Relsner was running to- ward Grogan’s car and the two gunmen. Even now, Reisner doesn't remember whether he put his bulletproof vest on or held it in front of bim Uke a shield. The few eyewitnesses said -he held it in - Somehow, Mireles got to his feet. . a There were almost seven yards between him and Grogan’s car. Walking slowly, losing bleed and barely conscious, Mireles walked the distance, emptying his Smith & Wesson revolver af the two men in the car. - He shot Platt in the spine. He hit Matix {n the face. Then he shot Matiz iu the spine. Both men were paralyzed. ‘ ; Moments later, they were dead. lacredibly, Mireles waz still on bis feet when he reached the car. Agent Reisner ren up behind him. He looked once at Platt and Matix fa the front seat. Then he cased Mireles to the bloodied grass. The time: @:22. it was. still a bright, clear morning. MONDAY: A changed nelghbor- hood. . soe: emmm,