Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis. Michael E. Wood
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Kness immediately attempted another shot at Davis after the first, but for the third time in the fight, Mr. Kness pulled the trigger on an empty chamber.35 He heard additional shooting on his left, but also heard a more reassuring sound—the sirens of additional CHP cruisers approaching from the south along The Old Road.36 Faced with the prospect of being outnumbered in the middle of an active gunfight with two empty weapons and hearing the sound of “the good guys” approaching, he fled to his right, towards the safety of the ditch. (Fig. 27) (Also, refer again to Fig. 28.)37
CHAPTER 6
The Flanking Movement
As the drama played out at the rear of Unit 78-8, Twining had been shooting at Officer Pence (and possibly Officer Alleyn) from a location near the front left of the Pontiac, using it for cover. It is probable that Twining fired two rounds from his .45-caliber 1911A1 pistol at Officer Pence from this position, while Officer Pence returned fire with his .357 Magnum revolver from behind the door of the patrol car. (Refer again to Figs. 20, 21 and 22.)
At some point, Twining left his position at the Pontiac and began a wide flanking movement to Officer Pence’s left, in order to get a better angle of fire on the officer. One witness reported that he yelled out a warning from across the parking lot that Twining was on the move, but his message was undoubtedly drowned out by the gunfire and the phenomena of auditory exclusion that was certainly affecting the officers. (Refer again to Fig. 23.)
Officer Pence had fired all six rounds from his revolver and it was now empty. Instead of attempting to reload the revolver in the position from where he was taking fire, he elected to move to the left rear corner of the patrol car and complete his reload there, where the car could offer greater protection. (Refer again to Fig. 24.) On his way to the rear of the car, he opened the cylinder of his Colt Python and dumped the six spent .357 Magnum cases on the ground, roughly abeam the rear door on the driver’s side of the vehicle.38
As Officer Pence’s fire slackened off, Twining pressed the offensive, concealed by the shadows, and advanced along a line that would bring him wide and to the north of Unit 78-12, where he could flank and get a better shot at Officer Pence. The pattern of recovered spent cases suggests that Twining fired one round during the early portion of this movement. (Refer again to Figs. 24 and 25.)
As Officer Pence knelt behind the patrol car and began to reload his empty revolver from the right side of his dump pouch, Twining fired four rounds at him from the left flank, striking him twice in the legs (inducing a compound fracture of the left femur and a wound to his right lower leg), and twice again in the lower torso (striking Officer Pence in the left hip and left abdomen). Terribly wounded, Officer Pence struggled to complete his reload of the empty revolver and get back into the fight. (Refer again to Fig. 26.)39
Twining pressed his advantage by closing in on the left rear of the patrol car. Drops of Twining’s blood would later mark the spot near the left rear door handle where he leaned over the fender of the car and extended his pistol at Officer Pence as he reloaded. Twining fired the pistol once from a few feet away, hitting Officer Pence in the back of the head and killing him instantly at the same moment Officer Pence was preparing to close the cylinder on his freshly loaded revolver.
As Twining fired the execution-style shot, the escaping citizen-hero, Gary Kness, heard Twining exclaim, “I’ve got you now, you dumb son of a bitch!” (Refer again to Fig. 27.)40
After killing Officer Pence, Twining retreated to the Pontiac, stopping on his way at Officer Gore’s lifeless body to take his revolver. Davis had made his way around the front of the Pontiac and entered the driver’s side of the vehicle to prepare for their escape. (Refer again to Fig. 28.)
CHAPTER 7
More Backup Arrives
At 23:56, when Officer Pence arrived on scene, took fire, and broadcast the 11-99 call, Unit 78-16R (Officers Ed Holmes and Richard Robinson), made another U-turn south of Thatcher Glass Company, directly in front of the oncoming Unit 78-19R (Officers Harry Ingold and Roger Palmer), and the pair of CHP cars responded northbound, Code 3. (Fig. 29)
Officer Ingold would later recall that, as they approached the Saugus Café and began the sweeping left turn onto Henry Mayo Drive, they were exceeding speeds of 130 miles per hour, taking every advantage of the legendary performance of the Dodge Polara Pursuit vehicle.41 They likewise hit the “Edison Curve,” just east of the interstate on Henry Mayo Drive, at 90 mph. To navigate that turn (which was marked at 35 miles per hour), the officers had to drive into the opposing lane, entering high and coming out low as they had been taught in the Emergency Vehicle Operations Course (EVOC) at the Academy.
Less than three full minutes from the start of their response, the units came to a screeching halt and joined the fight, just as Davis and Twining reached their Pontiac in flight, having killed Officers Alleyn and Pence moments earlier.
The total time since Officers Gore and Frago first stopped the Pontiac was only four and a half minutes.
The first unit on scene was 78-16R, who stopped about three car lengths short of Unit 78-8, facing north and slightly east on The Old Road. Gun smoke still hung in the air as Officer Robinson exited the passenger side of the patrol car with a Remington 870 shotgun in hand, narrowly missing being struck by the last .45-caliber bullet from Twining’s handgun, which hit the door of the car after Twining took a shot at his fifth CHP Officer that night. (Fig. 30)42
Officer Robinson hadn’t seen Twining yet, however. The first man that he confronted was the escaping Mr. Kness, who pointed the way to the fleeing felons with one hand, while the other still clutched Officer Alleyn’s empty revolver.43 Officer Robinson crossed the ditch and leveled his Remington 870 shotgun over the top of the fence at the escaping Pontiac, too late to fire a shot. (Fig. 31). It was at this time that he saw the bloody Officer Alleyn, moving slightly on the ground in his green “Ike” uniform jacket, and he realized one of his fellow officers had been hurt.
Meanwhile, Officer Holmes had exited the driver’s side of 78-16R and had seen Twining fire at them. Holmes fired one shot at Twining with his revolver as he was getting into the driver’s side of the vehicle, then once more through the already shattered rear window of the escaping vehicle as it sped off northeast through the gas pump islands with Davis at the wheel and Twining in the rear seat. (Refer again to Figs. 30 and 31.)44