Читать книгу Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis - Michael E. Wood - Страница 13

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 location, but as he neared the scene 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