Newhall Shootout 1970

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The Newhall shooting occurred shortly before midnight on April 5, 1970 at a gas station in Newhall, a district of Santa Clarita in the US state of California . Four young California Highway Patrol officers were shot dead by two felons.

Perpetrator

Jack Wright Twining (born September 11, 1935 in North Carolina, † 1970) had been a criminal since he was 16 and was placed in eight different prisons over the course of his life. His previous convictions included car theft in Georgia , attempted robbery and assault with lethal weapon on a Florida police officer . On November 11, 1956, he managed to escape from Florida State Prison . 17 days later, he robbed a bank in Louisiana , stealing $ 11,790. However, he was arrested shortly after the crime.

He was then housed in Alcatraz for a few years , where he killed fellow inmate Walter Mollett in the New Industries Building on February 12, 1959. However, he was able to make a self-defense situation credible. He was paroled in early 1969, when he was in the Federal Penitentiary in Tallahassee. He then traveled to California with Bobby Augustus Davis (1942-2009), who was also released on parole from Texas custody, to commit further crimes.

Manhunt

Late one night on April 5, 1970, Twining and Davis were out on Interstate 5 in a 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix . According to later investigations, they were looking for explosives from building sites to carry out a robbery on a money transporter. In addition, the two are said to have planned the kidnapping of bank managers in Los Angeles to extort a ransom. They were armed with fake identification papers and a back seat full of firearms as they wanted to practice target practice. Both were now wanted for a probation violation and an unexplained homicide in Oregon .

When Twining got off the vehicle looking for explosives, Davis turned on the interstate, cutting another road user. When he had followed Davis and confronted him from the vehicle, Davis threatened him and his wife with a short-barreled revolver. Under the pretext that a police car was approaching, the man was able to encourage Davis to flee. The couple finally reported the incident about 15 minutes later from a gas station by phone to the California Highway Patrol. Shortly thereafter, Unit 78-8 was briefed with Officer Roger Gore and Officer Walter Frago, who received a description of the car, license plate and driver.

Meanwhile, Davis had resumed his partner Twining. Both were heading south on the interstate toward Long Beach . While driving, Davis told Twining about the incident during the turning maneuver. Unit 78-8 was stationed at Castaic Junction and was able to spot the car they were looking for about 20 minutes later. They started the persecution and asked for assistance. Unit 78-12, with Officer James Pence and Officer George Alleyn, was only three miles south of Unit 78-8's location on Valencia Boulevard. There the two units agreed on the location of the arrest.

Davis, however, had noticed Unit 78-8 behind him and was leaving the Interstate about a mile before Unit 78-12 was waiting on Henry Majo Drive. Unit 78-8 stayed behind them, while unit 78-12 now turned and headed north across the interstate to the Henry Majo Drive exit.

At the end of Henry Majo Drive, Davis and Twining drove north on California State Route 99 and shortly afterwards to the site of a gas station with an adjacent coffee shop and extensive parking areas. Davis stopped the car shortly after the driveway and about 15 meters from the gas station, which is why the following Unit 78-8 was forced to stop about a car length behind them in the middle of the driveway, where they were bordered on both sides by about one meter deep trenches . Through the headlights of their patrol car and the lights at the petrol station and the parking lots, they must have recognized that they were dealing with two suspects and not one, as the eyewitness described to the headquarters.

shoot-out

Officer Gore and Officer Frago got out of their vehicle with their service weapons drawn and asked them to get out, which they ignored the first two times. Only after the third request did Davis get out of the car, who also had to be asked several times to put his hands up. The official act was observed by around 30 eyewitnesses from the gas station and the coffee shop. After Davis had spread his legs and put both hands on the roof of the car, Officer Gore approached the driver's side. Officer Frago approached the passenger side at about the same time. He had the butt of his " Remington 870 " rifle inserted on his right hip, with the barrel pointing up. It was 11:55 p.m. at the time.

When Frago tried to open the passenger door, Twining jumped out of the car and killed the officer with two quick shots from a Smith & Wesson Model 28 that hit Frago in the upper body. After that, Twining shot twice more at Officer Gore, but missed it. Officer Gore moved away from Davis and shot Twining once, but he also missed. Now Davis also pulled a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard, the same one with which he had previously threatened the motorist on the interstate, and killed Gore with two shots in the upper body.

At around 11:56 p.m., just over a minute after the stop, Unit 78-12 also arrived at the scene. The two officers came to a standstill parallel to Unit 78-8 and were immediately fired at by Davis and Twining, who were holed up in front of their Pontiac. While Officer Pence radioed for support, the two perpetrators got new weapons from the back seat of their car. After both officers left their car, they returned the fire. Officer Pence took up position behind his driver's door while Officer Alleyn took cover behind the vehicle of Unit 78-8. After a brief exchange of fire, Davis ran towards the two patrol cars with a sawed-off pump gun, and Officer Alleyn missed him several times. Officer Pence was still in a shootout with Twining. As Officer Alleyn straightened up behind Unit 78-8, Davis hit and killed him multiple times. Since he was out of ammunition, Davis ran back to the killed Officer Frago and took his service weapons from him.

Meanwhile, Gary Kness, an ex-Marine, had become aware of the shooting while on his night shift. He immediately ran to Officer Alleyn and tried unsuccessfully to pull him to safety. He tried to shoot the perpetrators with Alleyn's rifle, but the ammunition was exhausted. He then took the officer's service revolver and shot Davis, splitting a projectile on the Pontiac. Two of these fragments hit Davis in the chest area, but only slightly injured him. Twining meanwhile hit Officer Pence in the chest and both legs with a Colt M1911 . Then he ran to him and finally killed him with a head shot from close range.

Kness had meanwhile escaped by jumping into one of the trenches because he no longer had a weapon ready to fire. After the arrival of more officers and a brief exchange of fire, the perpetrators fled.

aftermath

Bobby Davis robbed a vehicle and tried to escape, but was arrested shortly afterwards. He was sentenced to death for murder, but was pardoned to life imprisonment in 1972. He committed suicide by hanging in Kern Valley State Prison in 2009.

Jack Twining stormed a nearby house on Pico Canyon Road and took a family man hostage. He then phoned the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, his accomplice Bobby Davis, and a media representative. After several hours, he shot himself when the police attacked using tear gas. The hostage was unharmed.

It was the most casualty shootout in California police history until March 21, 2009, when four police officers were also shot dead in Oakland .

The case was intensively processed and led to changes and improvements in the training and equipment of the California police force. A 7-point program for traffic controls and a ten-minute instructional video for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were created, in which the events of April 5, 1970 were recreated. The Highway Patrol was the first major police agency in the United States to introduce speed loaders for the service revolvers.

Other points concerned, among other things, the standardization of ammunition, since the police officers shot with the .357 Magnum caliber while on duty , while they only trained with the .38 Special during training, as well as the introduction of protective vests ; these would probably have saved three of the four police officers' lives. A solution for the armament only came in 1990 with the introduction of the semi-automatic standard pistol Smith & Wesson Model 4006.

In 2008, a section of Interstate 5 was named after the four police officers killed.

See also

literature

  • Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis by Micheal E. Wood
  • The Ayoob Files: The Book by Massad Ayoob
  • The Fading Voices of Alcatraz by Jerry Lewis Champion
  • State Trooper: America's State Troopers and Highway Patrolmen by Marilyn Olsen

Web links