Good Illustration On The Newhall Shooting Incident

[Chippysgt]

The book is a little pricey on Amazon. I looked at the private vendors linked to Amazon and there was at least one new book and there was a like new book signed by the author.

You may want to think about going to the Madera Sheriff's website and sending an e-mail to the sheriff. John Anderson was the Central Division CHP Chief when he wrote the book and he is now the Sheriff of Madera County. He may have some of the books for sale or he may be able to point you in the direction of where you can buy one new.

[NorCalN00b]

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/claude_werner/slideshow?.dir=/f2b0&.src=ph

This is a very good illustration of the Newhall shooting incident. RIP to the officers.

[TheForceCHP]

I agree, makes it really easy to see what happened :sad:

[Chippysgt]

Gore and Frago were both from Merced County. In May we dedicated a Law Enforcement Memorial in Merced for officers killed in the line of duty and they are part of that. Every year at our police memorials in Merced members of their families attend. I see Officer Gore's grave stone in the Snelling Cemetery every time I drive up in that part of Merced County.

We all learned great lessons in officer safety as a result of this incident..


Heroes Live Forever...................

[SB 405]

I've heard a lot about "The Incident" over the years but never knew a citizen became involved trying to help until now.

[dw]

I've heard a lot about "The Incident" over the years but never knew a citizen became involved trying to help until now.

SB, you may be interested in this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1884956017/sr=8-1/qid=1153671435/ref=sr_1_1/103-2401273-1361445?ie=UTF8).

[NorCalN00b]

I've heard a lot about "The Incident" over the years but never knew a citizen became involved trying to help until now.

SB, you may be interested in this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1884956017/sr=8-1/qid=1153671435/ref=sr_1_1/103-2401273-1361445?ie=UTF8).
I went over to the Borders, Amazon and Barnes Noble website and it looks like they don't have it in-stock. It only lists private sellers that carry it, used of course. Do you know why they don't have new ones?

And I've heard another book about this incident is "The Tactical Edge- Surviving High-Risk Patrol" by Charles Remsberg and Calibre Press. I was told this book has the actual photos of the officers laying dead on a gurney in the ER.

What can't we get these books anymore?? I so want to read them.

[SB 405]

What do you guys think about the citizen getting involved...hero or foolish?

[Chipper]

The book is a little pricey on Amazon. I looked at the private vendors linked to Amazon and there was at least one new book and there was a like new book signed by the author.

You may want to think about going to the Madera Sheriff's website and sending an e-mail to the sheriff. John Anderson was the Central Division CHP Chief when he wrote the book and he is now the Sheriff of Madera County. He may have some of the books for sale or he may be able to point you in the direction of where you can buy one new.


SB-

Call the CHP PX, I believe they sell the book..

[not5150]

What do you guys think about the citizen getting involved...hero or foolish?

In life and death situations, you just do what you think is right. Heroism or foolishness shouldn't even come into your mind.

[Flying Pig]

In this case Id say the guy was a hero. We in law enforcement like to use the term "totality of the circumstances". An officer out numbered with his partner dead. I want this guy with me. He defintiely knew what he was getting into.

[SB 405]

I'd like to think I'd do the same thing as the citizen, but can't say for sure. This is just one reason I have total respect for people in LE. I don't know what I'd do as a citizen.... but I know exactly what one of you would do if I was in need of help.

[ExplorerSGT]

hey guys..heres an interesting article i found about the bystander that helped out


VALENCIA It's been 35 years since Gary Kness dragged a fallen highway patrolman from the spray of bullets and used the dying officer's gun to battle the two men responsible for the worst bloodshed in CHP history.
On Tuesday, 3 decades later, the veteran of the Marines was honored by the California Highway Patrol for his heroics the spring night that four officers were gunned down in the parking lot of a diner.

"Gary was not only a hero that night, he was the star witness for the prosecution," said CHP Sgt. Lewis Hall, who tracked Kness down to his home in Palmdale to make sure he was given a proper thank you.

It was April 5, 1970, and Kness got off Interstate 5 at what is now Magic Mountain Parkway -- a country road controlled by a stop sign. He had the right-of-way, but allowed a speeding squad car to go ahead.

He watched as it screeched into a parking lot on The Old Road between Jay's Coffee Shop and a Standard gas station -- now the site of a Marie Callender's restaurant and the Hilton Garden Inn.

And then the tragic Newhall Incident unfolded.

"I came down and turned onto The Old Road and I could see at the gas station ... I realized there was a gunbattle going on," Kness said. "I saw only two officers at that point, and then I saw another officer fall in the street."

He left his car in the middle of the road -- he found a ticket on his windshield the following day -- and ran about 100 feet to a well-lit parking lot where guns were blazing.

The battle was between two men, Bobby Davis and Jack Twining, sought for brandishing a gun a short time earlier along the freeway, and four cops who died that night trying to stop the pair.

Officers George Alleyn, Roger Gore, James Pence and Walter Frago all were under 26 and all had young children. Their legacy is the lessons learned that night, lessons still used in law enforcement training.

Two of the officers were shot before the first backup car arrived, a third quickly thereafter, and Kness, just 15 feet from a pair of killers, tried to drag a dying Officer Alleyn behind the cover of a black-and-white.

"I tried, but I couldn't, to me it was dead weight," he said. "Then I found his shotgun. I tried to fire it."

Kness, 31 years old and married, had an 18-month-old daughter at home in Saugus. A former Marine, he hadn't fired a weapon in 10 years. But he took the gun and fired ... and nothing. He pumped and fired again. The weapon was empty.

He grabbed the officer's revolver and fired a shot at Davis, hitting him in the shoulder. He was poised to strike again, knowing he had the guy, and that gun, too, proved spent.

What he saw next was chilling, part of the story that still brings on a cold sweat.

Twining shot Officer Pence point-blank, execution style.

Kness' eyes are a deep blue that turns to steel when he recalls the killer's words, a memory still so vivid.

"He said, 'I got you now, you son of a bitch," he repeats, no emotion in his voice.

Hearing the sirens of more backup cars -- the second unit had radioed for help -- it hit Kness that he would be a target, a civilian among the bloodshed who was holding a cop's revolver. He scurried about 10 yards to a drainage ditch where he stayed till more officers arrived, and in the hours that followed told his grisly story.

Meanwhile, the gunmen escaped. The morning after, Twining killed himself with a CHP-issue weapon after holding a family hostage overnight, three or four miles away. Davis was arrested miles away driving a vehicle stolen from a camper he had beaten, Hall said.

In the police station, he spotted Kness and asked that he be arrested for shooting him that night.

At the Valencia CHP station, a mile from the site of the Newhall Incident, officers, brass and trainees listened Tuesday as this man -- who had been on his way to work 35 years ago when he came upon the incident -- was honored.

"The CHP -- would like to acknowledge and thank you for how you performed in probably one of the worst days in our history when we lost four officers at one time," Southern Division Chief Gary Dominguez said, honoring Kness for his part after the "officer down" call. "There was a guy already on the way and he wasn't wearing a uniform and he wasn't carrying a gun. Thanks, Gary."

Kness said he has a number of awards for his heroics, but this one will take the center spot in that collection hanging on his hallway wall. "That one's special. It's from the Highway Patrol."

Kness doesn't see himself as a hero. He's a guy who used to be a computer operator who at 67 teaches driving. The real heroes, he said, are the men and women who put their lives on the line every day.

"They deserve the awards," he said. "I don't. The ones in uniforms, they jump out there every day. I got out there once."

[Mac]

I could never call Gary Kness anything BUT a hero for what he did that night. He put his own life on the line in an effort to save four Highwaymen he had never met. There are very, very few people in the world who possess the intestinal fortitude and unwavering courage to wade into that kind of a situation as he did.

I can greatly appreciate his humility - but the truth is, there aren't enough accolades in the world to properly reward him for his heroism on that spring night in 1970.

[Darth Choke]

I have a copy of The Newhall Incident.

Very good book. Basically two parallel stories (bad guys and good guys) then leads up to their paths crossing.

Very very sad and upsetting.

[TheForceCHP]

Reading that story about Gary Kness brough tears to my eyes because it made me think about those officers and how he helped them. Also reading the quote of what the killer said before killing the officer sent shivers down my spine.

[not5150]

Keep in mind that the majority of citizens and academy cadets haven't been in a life/death battle with someone who is, for the lack of a better term, "Pure Evil".

Sure you've probably been in fights where you get punched, kicked, etc, but it stops and you dust yourself off. But remember there are people out there who will kill you without blinking an eye.

Mr. Kness jumped in because he had the mental conditioning and weapons training from his Marine Corps days, but the average Joe will freeze when confronted with a life/death situation because it's completely out of their realm of reality.

[Mac]

Keep in mind that the majority of citizens and academy cadets haven't been in a life/death battle with someone who is, for the lack of a better term, "Pure Evil".
Most people can't even truly fathom the degree of depravity and evil that man is capable of. If you've spent your whole life living a blissful existence in suburbia, it's hard to get your head around the fact that there are sociopaths among us who will maim and/or kill purely for the thrill of it.