Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis. Michael E. Wood

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СКАЧАТЬ and saw Officer Alleyn go down, he realized it was a real gunfight and thought to himself, “Somebody has got to do something.”³⁰

      The former Marine stopped his car along The Old Road, bailed out, and ran about 70 yards to assist Officer Alleyn. His first thought was that he had to get the officer back behind cover, because he was lying in an exposed position at the right rear of the Dodge and the gunman ahead was still firing at him. (Refer again to Figs. 23 and 24.)

      Upon reaching Officer Alleyn, Mr. Kness grabbed him by the gunbelt and attempted to pull him to cover, but he found he could not move him. As Mr. Kness attempted to rescue Officer Alleyn, Davis stepped around the right front of the Pontiac and began to advance on the pair. (Fig. 25)

      Seeing the CHP shotgun on the ground at Officer Alleyn’s feet, Mr. Kness grabbed the weapon, aimed it around the right rear fender of the CHP car (resting his left hand on the fender) at the advancing Davis, and pulled the trigger on an empty chamber. He immediately racked the slide of the shotgun and pulled the trigger again on an empty chamber.³¹

      At the sight of Mr. Kness aiming the shotgun at him, Davis abandoned his advance and immediately retreated back to the front of the Pontiac. However, once it became apparent that the shotgun was empty, Davis began another advance on Mr. Kness and Officer Alleyn, continuing to fire the .38-caliber revolver he had taken from Officer Frago. (Refer again to Fig. 25.)

      When he saw Davis retreat, Mr. Kness ditched the useless shotgun and resumed his work of trying to pull Officer Alleyn to cover behind the vehicle. However, when he saw Davis again step out from the right front of the Pontiac to initiate a new charge on his position, Mr. Kness found and picked up Officer Alleyn’s blood-soaked revolver. He obtained a two-handed grip (a “combat grip” in his description), cocked the weapon, braced his elbows on the trunk of the patrol car, and fired a single round at Davis, who had already fired five of the six Super-Vel .38 Special rounds in Officer Frago’s revolver at Officer Alleyn and Mr. Kness by this point. (Fig. 26)³²

      Mister Kness would later report that the impact of the fired shot spun Davis around, but there was no significant wound from the shot.³³ Davis was later found to have two copper-jacketed fragments imbedded in the upper middle portion of his chest, so it is presumed that the bullet struck the Pontiac first and broke into pieces before it struck Davis. The fragments, depleted of most of their energy and mass, failed to significantly wound him, but it was enough to cause Davis to break off the attack a second time.³⁴ Davis disengaged and headed around the front of the Pontiac to enter the vehicle via the driver’s side door. (Fig. 28)

      Mister 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 СКАЧАТЬ