◆ SpookStack

i a “FBI, from 1A Pree who jumped from a car wield- jing & semi-sutomatic rifle. McNel!l said he caw jo ad- vance that one of the suspects, apparently Matiz, was ready for a firefight and radioed a warning to other agents. “| said, ‘The passenger ts crouched down on the passen- er side, he's loading up 4 ong-barreled weapon; this guy's getting ready to go; he's gone to shoot it out,’” McNeil Hanlon then described what he saw as he attempted to pull over the suspect's car. “When I pulled around them and slammed into them on the side, we were parallel," Hanion sald, referring to Matix, “I looked right at him. He just looked very, very determined. He wasn't scared. He was like a man on a mission.” Both agents sald they felt “fortunate” to have taken part in the gun bettie that stopped the two dangerous bank rob- bery suspects on a residential street-one block off South Dixte Seqperarence Highway fn Suniland. The agents had spent months trying to track down the two suspects by the time they spotted the pair driving In a stolen car. “The bottom line ... is that we didn’t want (Matix and Platt) to get back on South Dix- ie Highway,” Hanlon said. McNeil, who was in charge of the investigation, talked sbout the dedication of his “extreme- iy close comrades.” “['m glad they (Matix and Platt) were aot able to go on and burt anybody else,” sald McNeil, who still has a builet lodged In an area just above his colon, “I'm glad we were able to help the public.” Hanlon described Matix in the gun battle as @ “grade B, apaghettl Western bad man.” Ed Mireles, the FEI agent whe charged back to slay the two killers after being wound- ed, was to be released from South Miami Hospital today or tomorrow, said a hospital spokesman. “We won't know wher he will be released until his physi- clan gives the OK,” Tom Jones said. “He took a pretty power- ful hit.” Jones said Mireles planned to make a public statement upon his release, The agent was shot once in his left arm in the gun- fight and hes undergone several reconstructive surgeries, ins cluding a skin graft, Jones said. Two other agents, Richard A. Manauzzl and Giibert Orrantia, were treated for superficial wounds at Jackson Memoria! Hospital and released*————"*