Newhall Massacre

Infobox civilian attack
title =Newhall massacre


caption =
location = Newhall, California, USA
target = California Highway Patrol officers
date = April 6, 1970
time =
timezone =
type = shootout
fatalities = 5 (4 officers, 1 perpetrator)
injuries =
perps = Bobby Davis and
Jack Twining†
weapons = Smith & Wesson Model 28 revolver, Smith & Wesson model 649 "bodyguard" revolver, Sawed-off shotgun, M1911 pistol, .38 caliber revolver, Remington 870 shotguns, .357 Magnum revolvers, Enfield RevolverThe Newhall massacre was a shootout that took place on April 6, 1970 in the parking lot of a restaurant near Newhall, California between two heavily armed criminals and officers of the California Highway Patrol, along with one bystander who came to the officers' aid. In a span of five minutes, criminals Jack Twinning and Bobby Davis killed four CHP officers before fleeing the scene, making it the deadliest day in the history of California law enforcement. [ [http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/newhall.html CHP: The Newhall Incident ] ]

David was later captured by police, while Twinning fled to a house and took the occupants hostage. Eventually, Twining released the hostages and killed himself as police stormed the house.

The Suspects

Jack Twinning, age 35, and Bobby Davis, 27, were both career criminals with a long histories of violent felonies and robberies. On the day of the event, they were practicing in preparation for another series of robberies by testing out radios and shooting weapons in the California Mountains.

Inside their Red Pontiac, they had amassed an enormous arsenal of weapons, including revolvers, semi-automatic handguns, rifles, and shotguns. Overall, they had twice as many weapons as the four CHP officers they would eventually face had in their two patrol cars. (Ayoob, 1995)

The Event

The incident began when Davis driving alone (Davis later picked up Twinning) was driving on US Highway 99 northbound and took a U turn heading southbound and nearly collided with a civilian vehicle while driving north of Newhall. While driving, the occupants of the other car, Jack and Pamela Tidwell, confronted Davis about the near-collision. He responded by threatening the Tidwells with a .38 caliber revolver and they told him a California Highway Patrol car was approaching, he drove away. The Tidwells quickly drove to a nearby pay phone and called the Highway Patrol. (Ayoob, 1995)(RH, 2008) Later on that night, A CHP police cruiser containing Officers Walt Frago and Roger Gore spotted the Red Pontiac and initiated a felony traffic stop. After pulling into the parking lot of a restaurant, Davis and Twinning appeared to comply with the officers. Obeying the officers orders, Davis exited the driver's seat and walked to the rear of the vehicle where Gore proceeded to search him. Meanwhile, Frago approached the other side of the car carrying a shotgun at "port arms" with the stock against his hip and the barrel pointed in the air. Then the shootout began. As Frago walked to the Pontiac, Twinning exited the passenger seat and opened fire with a Smith & Wesson Model 28 revolver (Ironically nicknamed the "Highway Patrolman" since it was commonly used by state police). Before Fargo could aim his shotgun down at Twinning, he was struck by two .357 magnum rounds and killed. Gore quickly drew his service revolver and returned fire at Twinning, but in doing so lost track of Davis, who was right next to him. While Twinning and Gore exchanged gunfire, Davis pulled a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson model 649 "bodyguard" revolver out of his waistband and killed Gore with several shots at point blank range. Shortly after Gore was killed, a second police cruiser containing CHP officers George Alleyn and James Pence arrived on the scene. As soon as it pulled up to the first cruiser, Davis and Twinning opened fire on it with their revolvers, expending all their remaining rounds, and then dove back into their own car for new weapons. Davis pulled out a sawn-off shotgun, while Twining grabbed a semi-automatic Colt 1911 .45 caliber pistol. After firing one shot, Twining's 1911 jammed, but he simply grabbed another one of the car exited out the driver's side. As they did this, officer Alleyn emptied his Remington 870 shotgun at the Pontiac, firing the gun so fast he accidentally ejected a live round in the process. A single pellet from the shotgun struck Twinning in the forehead, but it did not penetrate his skull and inflicted only a minor wound. After expending all his shotgun rounds, Alleyn opened fire on Davis with his .357 magnum revolver, but did not make any hits. Davis returned fire with his sawn-off shotgun, striking Alleyn with several rounds of 00' buckshot and inflicting fatal injuries.

Gary Kness joins the fight

At this point, 31-year old bystander Gary Kness intervened, leaping out of his vehicle and running over to the fallen officer Alleyn. He tried to drag Alleyn to safety, but was unable to move him. Failing that, he looked up and saw Davis discard his now-empty sawn-off shotgun and grab the Remington shotgun that had been dropped by Officer Frago. Apparently not realizing Frago had never fired the weapon, Davis tried to rack the shotgun, but since it had not been fired, it was locked on a live round. Eventually, he accidentally fired the gun into the air. Startled, he dropped the weapon and grabbed the .38 caliber service revolver out of Frago's holster. Meanwhile on the other side of the cruiser, Pence fired all six rounds from his .357 revolver at Twinning, but did not score a single hit. Twinning returned fire with his .45 caliber pistol, striking Pence in the chest and in both legs. Pence fell to the ground, desperately trying to manually reload (at the time, the CHP did not issue their officers speed loaders) Back on the other side of the cruiser, Kess picked up Alleyn's discarded shotgun and tried to shoot at Davis, but the gun was empty. As Davis opened fire on him with Frago's revolver, Kness dropped the shotgun and returned fire with Pence's service revolver. His shots struck the Pontiac, but a chunk of one bullet lodged into Davis' chest, scoring the first penetrating hit of the day against the two criminals. However, the shot did not incapacitate Davis, and soon Kness' revolver clicked dry. While this was going on, the wounded Pence desperately tried to reload his revolver. As he did so, he failed to notice Twinning sneak up to the cruiser and around the left side. As he inserted the sixth cartridge and started to close the cylinder of his weapon, Twinning pointed his pistol at him and killed Pence with a shot to the head at point blank range. (Ayoob, 1995)

The suspects flee the scene

Realizing his situation was now hopeless, Ness ran from the cars to cover in a nearby ditch. As he did, a third CHP cruiser arrived at the scene. After a brief exchange of gun shots, the two suspects fled the scene through the darkness in separate directions. Davis took Frago's revolver with him, while Twinning ran off with Pence's revolver and Frago's shotgun.

Davis is arrested

At 3:25 am Davis stumbled onto a camper parked near a dirt road. After exchanging gun shots with the owner (citizen Daniel Schwartz armed with a WWII surplus Enfield revolver), Davis pistol whipped Schwartz with his empty .38 and stole the camper. However, Schwartz called the police and reported the theft. Within hours the camper was spotted and pulled over by deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office. Without any more loaded guns at his disposal, Davis surrendered. (Ayoob, 1995)

Death of Twinning

3 miles away from the scene of the shootout, Twinning broke into a house and took the occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Hoag and their 17-year old son, hostage. But as he entered the house, one of the occupants called the police. Soon the house was surrounded by police. For the next several hours, negotiators talked on the phone with Twinning, who openly bragged about how he took advantage of Frago's mistake when he saw the officer approach his car with the shotgun in an un-shootable position: "He got careless, so I wasted him". By roughly 9 a. m., Twinning released all the hostages from the house. After issuing a surrender ultimatum, police pumped tear gas into the house and stormed in. As police in entered the residence, Twinning killed himself with Frago's shotgun.

Aftermath

Davis was sentenced to death for the murders of the four CHP officers, but in 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty to be "cruel and unusual punishment". As a result, Davis' sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole. After the shootout, the circumstances of the event were heavily scrutinized, causing the CHP and other police departments to re-examine their methods of training and tactics. [ [http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/newhall.html CHP: The Newhall Incident ] ] Overall, none of the four CHP officers who were killed had more than two years of experience on the job. Gore and Frago were both 23 years old, while Pence and Alleyn were both 24. The three officers who fired their handguns were using .357 revolvers even though all of them had only been trained and certified with .38 caliber rounds. Soon after the shootout, the CHP standardized their ammunition on the .38 caliber round, ensuing all officers trained with the same weapons they would use on duty. Lack of familiarity with their service shotguns was also cited as a problem during the shootout, as evidenced by Frago's mistake of approaching with the gun at "port arms" and Alleyn's error of ejecting a live round. [ [http://www.officer.com/web/online/On-the-Street/April-6--1970/21$36902 April 6, 1970: On the Street at Officer.com ] ] Another issue brought up by the Newhall massacre was the difficulty in reloading revolvers under fire without a speed loader, something that may have cost Pence his life. Shortly afterward, the CHP became the first major state police department to approve and issue all of their officers speedloaders.

The incident was later documented by famed firearms instructor Massad Ayoob in his 1995 book "The Ayoob Files: the book". In addition the other issues mentioned above, Ayoob brought up the issue of California's policy of strictly limiting the number of CCW permits issued to private citizens. Ayoob claimed that if citizens such as Gary Kness had been able to intervene with their own weapons instead of relying on the dropped weapons of the fallen CHP officers, they might have made a far more positive impact. (Ayoob, 1995)

References

ources

*Ayoob. M. (1995). "The Ayoob Files: The Book" Pages 114-129
* [http://www.officer.com/web/online/On-the-Street/April-6--1970/21$36902 officer.com story of the event]
* [http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/newhall.html CHP website]
* [http://www.the-signal.com/news/archive/1246/ Newhall Incident: The day that shook our valley]