Posted on 04/07/2011 8:58:55 PM PDT by TheConservativeCitizen
The events that took place on April 6, 1970 in northern California changed the face of US law enforcement immediately and irrevocably. The tragedy at Newhall was a wakeup call for law enforcement agencies across the country, and may have caused the birth of the term “officer safety” that is so heavily emphasized in police training today. Here’s what happened.
Jack Twinning, 35, and Bobby Davis, 27, had met in prison and had been paroled for less than a year when they decided to resume their criminal ways. They had collected a large number of pistols, rifles, and shotguns in their car and were planning to steal explosives from a construction site so they could blow up an armored car. At 11:20 p.m. on April 5, Davis made a U-turn across the center divider of Interstate 5, almost colliding with another motorist. Words were exchanged, and Davis pointed a revolver at the other motorist. Davis sped away when the motorist told him that a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer was approaching. At 11:36 p.m., the motorists’s wife reported the incident by phone to the CHP’s Newhall area office. Dispatchers alerted CHP officers in the area, providing a vehicle description and license number. The incident was dispatched as a misdemeanor offense. Since the area was open to hunting and shooting, firearms were not unusual to see. But Twinning and Davis, with their car full of guns, knew they would be going back to prison if they were pulled over by the police.
At 11:54 p.m., CHP officers Roger Gore, 23, and Walter Frago, 23, notified the Newhall dispatcher that they were following the suspect vehicle. In a nearby CHP patrol car, officers James Pence, 24, and George Alleyn, 24, coordinated by radio with Gore and Frago to plan the traffic stop. The suspect vehicle pulled into a coffee shop near a Standard Oil service station, and the CHP vehicle carrying Gore and Frago stopped behind them. Pence and Alleyn were about two minutes from arrival. More than 30 witnesses related the events that took place next.
Officers Gore and Frago exited their vehicle, Gore on the driver’s side with his .357 Magnum revolver aimed at the suspect vehicle and Frago on the passenger’s side holding a shotgun. At Gore’s order, Davis exited the vehicle and leaned over the hood in a search position. As Frago approached the passenger door with his shotgun pointed toward the sky, Twinning turned in his seat and shot him twice with a .357 Magnum, killing him instantly. When Twinning turned and shot at Gore, and Gore returned fire, Davis pulled a .38 Special revolver and killed Gore with two shots to the chest at point blank range.
At 11:56 p.m., officers Pence and Alleyn arrived and immediately put out an emergency radio call: “11-99, shots fired at J’s Standard.” Twinning fired at their patrol car with a .45 caliber automatic which jammed after the first round was fired. He threw that gun back into the vehicle, grabbed another .45 automatic, and continued to fire. Davis began shooting at Pence and Alleyn with a sawed-off shotgun.
Pence exited the patrol car and began firing at the suspects with his revolver. Alleyn ran to the back of Gore and Frago’s car and began firing at the suspects with his shotgun. During the shooting, he mistakenly ejected a live round. One shotgun pellet gave Twinning a minor injury to his forehead. After expending all his shotgun rounds, he retreated to the rear of the patrol car, pulled his .357 Magnum, and continued firing at Davis, missing with every shot. Davis returned fire with the shotgun, inflicting fatal injuries on Alleyn.
Pence fired emptied his .357 Magnum revolver at Twinning, missing with every shot. Twinning returned fire with the .45 automatic, striking Pence in the chest and both legs. Pence began to reload his revolver, one round at a time. Twinning crept up on the patrol car, and just as Pence inserted the sixth round into the cylinder of his gun, Twinning shot him in the head at point blank range, killing him instantly.
Former Marine Gary Kness, 31, noticed the gun battle while he was driving to work and stopped to help. He ran to officer Alleyn and tried unsuccessfully to drag him to safety. He then picked up Alleyn’s shotgun and tried to shoot at the approaching Davis, but the shotgun was empty. He retrieved Alleyn’s service revolver and fired a single round at Davis. A bullet fragment lodged in Davis’s chest, but the revolver was out of ammunition. Just before he retreated to the safety of a nearby ditch, he saw Twinning approach the injured officer Pence, shout “I got you now, you son of a bitch,” and kill Pence with a single shot to the back of the head.
At that point, two more CHP vehicles arrived, and after a short exchange of gunfire, Twinning and Davis fled in their vehicle, abandoning it nearby. Davis carjacked a camper after pistol whipping the owner with his empty revolver, but he was soon captured by Sheriff’s deputies. Twinning broke into a house and took a hostage, but the other occupants of the house fled and notified the CHP. Los Angeles Country Sheriff’s Department deputies surrounded the house and negotiated with Twinning for several hours on the phone. Twinning released the hostage, and when the SWAT team filled the house with tear gas and stormed in, Twinning killed himself with officer Frago’s shotgun. Davis was sentenced to death, but when the Supreme Court invalidated the US death penalty, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. On August 15, 2009, Davis committed suicide in Kern Valley State Prison by hanging himself.
For an excellent retelling of this story, I recommend a 2009 video entitled “The Newhall Incident,” a production of Santa Clarita Valley TV (SCVTV). It is located here:
http://www.scvtv.com/html/scvhs040510btv.html
Most of the event description is provided by Retired CHP Sergeant Harry Ingold, who does an excellent job of talking through the timeline in front of a room full of local citizens attending a remembrance ceremony sponsored by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. He is assisted by Retired CHP Officer Roger Palmer. Palmer and Ingold were in the fourth CHP patrol car that pulled up to the scene that night. The video also contains an interview with Gary Kness, where he describes his efforts to assist the fallen CHP officers. It is interesting to see Sergeant Ingold’s extreme admiration for Gary Kness, the man who charged into the middle of an active firefight, unarmed, with nothing in mind but the desire to save a life.
The Newhall Incident left in its wake four young widows and nine fatherless children. Sympathy poured in from a stunned community as more than 5,000 letters were sent to CHP headquarters with nearly $100,000 in donations for the families. But Gore, Frago, Pence, and Alleyn did not die in vain. The following is taken from the CHP “Newhall Incident” web page:
In the weeks immediately after the four deaths, the emotionally charged follow-up investigation sometimes lingered on fault-finding, but ultimately achieved the desired catharsis – a completely revamped set of procedures to be followed during high-risk and felony stops, with emphasis at every step on officer safety. If there can be such a thing as a silver lining in a cloud this dark, it would be the renewed focus on officer safety – a concern still uppermost even thirty years later.
Firearms procedures have changed fundamentally, physical methods of arrest have been perfected, the police baton has become a more integral element of enforcement tactics, and new protective tools (such as pepper spray) have become part of the officers’ standard equipment. Along with these have come far more comprehensive training – all combining to make uniformed personnel more alert and better prepared for the inevitable dangers faced by CHP officers.
At the 1995 memorial ceremony, family members and colleagues of the dead officers joined dignitaries and Highway Patrol officers who didn’t know the four men, but whose lives have been influenced by that fateful night in 1970. Officers Walt Frago, Roger Gore, James Pence and George Alleyn will live forever in that special place of memory which the Highway Patrol reserves for those who have given their lives while on duty. These four remain unique, because their memories evoke a sorrow never quite put behind us, and the knowledge that their sacrifice ultimately made the Highway Patrol stronger, wiser, more resolute.
The following historic words concluded the SCVTV video.
“If anything worthwhile comes of this tragedy, it should be the realization by every citizen that often the only thing that stands between them and their losing everything they hold dear is the man wearing a badge.” - Governor Ronald Reagan
Newhall is in Southern California.
North of The San Fernando Valley,
South of Saugus.
It's well known in police circles that while procedure was lax...it was the lack of range time and combat shooting skills that cost these officers their lives.
Range time...and more range time. Combat shooting courses...and more of that.
Oh darn! I was going to go pay my respects this year, but I completely forgot about the date. It’s such a sad but fascinating story, I’ve read the book several times, it took place about 2 miles from where I live.
Yep, I was going to say that procedure wasn't the problem, hitting what they were shooting at seemed like the real reason that at least two of these men died, plus the lack of a speed loader for a revolver. Anytime you can't hit someone at close range with a 12 gauge shotgun, you have a serious problem with accuracy.
I remember this tradgic event very well. The AZ DPS changed their training programs for DPS officers very significantly shortly after as did Law Enforcement agencies nationwide.
Yes.
My mistake...No...Brain skipped line...
That incident was about two LAPD cops who were kidnapped at gun point, after a traffic stop...Take to a field about 100 miles away and one was executed and once escaped...Both suspect were apprehended.
Nope, see #9.
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