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[(ingicate page name of Newspaper, city and state } THE MIAMI NEKS Miami,¥Fl Dat Page 8A Fanon BROWARD qian. April 14, 1986 (Mount Capping in Space Beiow) Never forget their courage Title: It was the worst shooting in the long, storied history of the Cravacter. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Two agents brutally slain by or suspected bank robbers who possessed an arsenal Al Capone Classiication would have envied. Five other agents wounded. The two Submifting Office ayo ay Suspected bank robbers dead after a wild shootout busted loose in a normally quiet nelghborhood off U.S. 1 near the Dixie Belle indexng Shopping Center. As revealing as those details are, they do not tell the whole story of what happened Jast Friday morning when agents Benjamin Grogan and Gerald Dove made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. The real story is one of courage, of FBI agents risking and giving up their lives to protect the rest of us, and demonstrating again that when law enforcement officers work the streets nothing is routine. The agents were prepared for trouble. They called in reinforcements before they nutled over the two snspects who were driving a stolen car that had been used ina robbery. But the agents could not be prepared for the weapons that awalted them or for the homicidal and sulcidal nature of those who were primed to kil] and ready to be killed. Common sense and courage rode with the FBI agents last Friday morning, even If good Juck did not. They made their move . only after pursuing the suspects Into a quiet neighborhood. After the shooting began, witnesses reported, the agents raised their gucs several times as uninvolved motorists drove through the cross fire. The agents’ assailants extended no such courtesies. Berorée One of the agents finally succumbed, he kept ifting himself to fire at his assallants, a witness reported. Another agent An who was seriously wounded, Ed Mireles, crawled to confront the killers as they sought to flee in one of the FB] vehicles, and Mireles fired the bullets that finally ended the battle. Heroism on the job is not rare, but it is often unappreciated. Tn 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 Grogan and Dove to be told what they had known all along: that the men they loved upheld the highest standards of their 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. FB! Director William Webster said after the tragedy, “As in law enforcemient everywhere, dedicated men and women put their lives on the line each day for afl of us. This is a violent world, but it would be much worse without their fidelity, their bravery and their Integrity.” In few arens is that sentiment more appropriate than In Dade County. Psychiatrists, psychologists and criminologists may never wis . upderstand exactly what lay behind the actions of the killers. © 2.32.25 “Ee ‘Though nameless and faceless to law enforcement agents before the shootout, the two men in the stolen car were suspected bank robbers, armored car robbers, even cold-blooded murderers. At the same time, as it turns out, they were considered to be familly men. No one knows yet, however, whether they acted alone, or whether anyone who knew them suspected they lived other lives ihe pieces of this bizarre puzzle may never fit right. 2 wee remains baffling, too, why some motorists ignored 4 warnings to steer clear of the area where the shootout, which - lasted more than five minutes, was taking place. Perhaps it’s the ? n same inane and selfish reason that Jeads some motorists to ignore . bolice or fire-resene vehicles that are snesdino down the highway ..- 0°. 000-0 thom