Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis. Michael E. Wood

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СКАЧАТЬ to Fig. 18.) This “end run” was surely prompted by the fact that Officer Alleyn had been under fire since his arrival, and he felt unprotected due to the angle of Unit 78-12, which exposed the entire right side of the unit to the shooters.

      As Officer Alleyn was moving, Twining climbed into the Pontiac and fished around in the back seat for a second 1911A1 pistol of Colt’s manufacture. As he was doing this, Officer Alleyn reached his position at the door of 78-8, and, apparently, having forgotten that he had already done so in the stress of the moment, racked the slide of the shotgun again to chamber a round. This ejected an unfired round of buckshot onto the ground, which was discovered later during the post-shooting investigation.¹⁹

      Officer Alleyn fired two rounds of Western Super-X buckshot at Twining while he was inside the Pontiac arming himself with the second 1911A1 pistol. One of the pellets from these two shells penetrated the rear window of the Pontiac and, having spent its energy in doing so, struck Twining in the forehead. The pellet did not significantly wound him, but Twining would later complain that he had a “terrible headache” from the “hunk of buckshot in my scalp.” The wound “hurt like hell” and angered him, but while it made him bleed, it would not slow him down during the fight. (Refer again to Fig. 18.)²⁰

      Officer Alleyn also fired one shot from the shotgun at Davis while he was still at the front of the Pontiac, leaving marks on the passenger side of the vehicle.²¹ In doing so, Officer Alleyn ran the Remington 870 shotgun dry. Unfortunately, Davis’ shotgun was still loaded, and he fired at Officer Alleyn twice with the sawed-off shotgun, leaving a pattern of 13 pellet streaks alongside the right rear passenger door and right rear quarter panel of the CHP cruiser. The white passenger-side spotlight also took three hits at some point, probably from Davis’ buckshot blasts. (Fig. 19)

      After being grazed by Officer Alleyn’s shotgun pellet, Twining exited the Pontiac through the open driver’s side door, leaving blood stains inside the vehicle on the left sidewall and the rear of the driver’s seat. He began to engage Officer Pence (and possibly Officer Alleyn) with the new pistol from a position somewhere near the forward driver’s side of the vehicle.²² Officer Pence continued to fire his revolver from his position behind the driver’s side door, apparently striking the left rear of the Pontiac near the area where Twining emerged. (Fig. 20)²³

      After running the shotgun empty, Officer Alleyn retreated from his position at the right door of Unit 78-8 to a position at the rear left corner of the vehicle. (Refer again to Fig. 20.)As Officer Alleyn turned to the rear to begin this movement away from the door, several witnesses saw him with blood on his face, indicating he had already been wounded during the exchange of fire with Twining and Davis.²⁴

      After ditching the empty shotgun on the ground at the rear of the patrol car, Officer Alleyn drew his six-inch Smith & Wesson Model 19-2 .357 Magnum revolver from its crossdraw holster and began to fire at Davis, who had rounded the front of the Pontiac on the passenger’s side and had begun to advance to a position in front of and between the two CHP units with his sawed off-pump shotgun.²⁵ As he moved, Davis possibly fired one round from the shotgun at Officer Pence, striking the side of the unit. (Refer again to Fig. 20.)²⁶

      Officer Alleyn fired three rounds of .357 Magnum ammunition at Davis (and possibly Twining, according to a witness), from the left rear of Unit 78-8, firing from the time that Davis was at the front of the Pontiac to when he advanced on the patrol cars. Witnesses indicated that he fired with a single hand, using the other (his left) to brace himself on the trunk. Unfortunately, none of his bullets hit the highly mobile target that some witnesses later described as “bobbing” and “restless.” (Refer again to Fig. 20.)²⁷

      Officer Alleyn raised himself up above the trunk of Unit 78-8 to locate and target Davis during this phase of the battle and was shot in the face and chest by Davis, who had reached the front of the vehicle by this point. In mortal agony, Officer Alleyn attempted to prop himself up on the trunk lid of the vehicle, whereupon he was shot again in the chest by Davis at the length of the car. This caused Officer Alleyn to reflexively trigger a round from his revolver into the rear window of 78-8, turning the glass into a frosty haze.²⁸ Near death, Officer Alleyn fell forward onto the trunk then slid off to his right. He landed with his feet towards the centerline of the car and his upper body extending past the right side of the car, a total of 10 .33-caliber 00 Buckshot pellets in his face and chest. (Fig. 21)

      With his shotgun finally empty, Davis retreated to the position of the fallen Officer Frago and stripped him of his weapons. He placed the unfired CHP Remington 870 shotgun inside the Pontiac, along with his empty sawed-off shotgun, and armed himself with the fallen officer’s six-inch Colt Officer’s Model Match .38 Special revolver, which he’d taken from Officer Frago’s crossdraw holster. (Figs. 22 and 23)²⁹

      Thusly armed, Davis began to fire at the stricken Officer Alleyn, whose prone body was exposed at the right rear of the Polara. Witnesses would later recount (and blood evidence would confirm), that Davis maneuvered along the entire front of the Pontiac, firing from various positions, and that he rested his left elbow on the hood to brace his right hand, which held the revolver. (Fig. 24)

      CHAPTER 5

      A Heroic Attempt

      Earlier, as Officers Pence and Alleyn raced down the northbound off-ramp and turned westbound onto Henry Mayo Drive, they passed a car on their right waiting at the westbound Henry Mayo Stop sign. The car contained a single citizen by the name of Gary Dean Kness, who was on his way to work the night shift as a computer operator at Hydraulic Research and Manufacturing Corporation, in the nearby Rye Canyon industrial park.

      After Unit 78-12 sped past with amber deck lights flashing, Mr. Kness continued ahead on Henry Mayo Drive, turned right on The Old Road, and followed the vehicle towards the Standard Station. As he approached, it occurred to him that the lights of the gas station were usually off at this time of evening, but tonight they were on for some reason. As he got closer, he saw a pair of CHP cruisers in the parking lot and flashes of gunfire from Officers Pence and Alleyn at the rear of Units 78-12 and 78-8. His first thought was that a movie was being filmed on СКАЧАТЬ