| Newhall incident | |
|---|---|
Video produced by the CHP detailing the incident | |
  Location of the incident within the Santa Clarita Valley | |
| Location | The Old Road and Henry Mayo Drive (now Magic Mountain Parkway) Valencia, California, US |
| Coordinates | 34°25′24″N 118°35′06″W / 34.4233°N 118.5850°W |
| Date | April 5–6, 1970 (54 years ago) |
| Target | California Highway Patrol officers |
Attack type | Mass shooting, mass murder, shootout |
| Weapons | • Smith & Wesson Model 28 revolver • Smith & Wesson Bodyguard Model 49 revolver • Sawed-off 12-gauge Western Field pump-action shotgun • 2 Colt M1911 pistols |
| Deaths | 5 (including one of the perpetrators) |
| Injured | 2 (one of the perpetrators who was struck by gunfire and Daniel Schwartz who was pistol-whipped) |
| Perpetrators | • Bobby Davis (died by suicide in prison, 2009) • Jack Twinning (died by suicide during incident) |
The Newhall incident, also called the Newhall massacre, was a shootout on April 5–6, 1970, in Valencia, California,[a] between two heavily armed criminals and four officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). In less than five minutes, the four CHP officers were killed and another man was pistol-whipped in what was at the time the deadliest day in California law enforcement history.[1]
At about 11:54 p.m. on April 5, CHP officers Walt Frago and Roger Gore conducted a traffic stop of Bobby Davis and Jack Twinning in conjunction with an incident reported to the CHP minutes earlier. Twinning and Davis initially cooperated with the officers but then opened fire, killing both of them. Moments later, officers George Alleyn and James Pence arrived on the scene and engaged Twinning and Davis in a shootout. A bystander tried to help by firing an officer's weapon, but the three were outgunned. Both Alleyn and Pence suffered fatal injuries, while the witness ran out of ammunition and took cover in a ditch. A third CHP patrol car arrived on scene, and the officers briefly exchanged gunfire with the perpetrators, who then fled.
Davis stole a car and attempted to flee the area, but he was spotted by police and arrested. Meanwhile, Twinning broke into a house, taking the occupant hostage. The house was surrounded by deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and Twinning released the hostage. He committed suicide around 9 a.m. as the deputies entered the house.
In 1972, Davis was convicted and sentenced to death for the murders. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In 2009 he killed himself at Kern Valley State Prison.
The Newhall incident resulted in a number of changes at the CHP, including procedural changes for arresting high-risk suspects, standardization of firearms, and firearms training used throughout the department.
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- ^ https://www.chp.ca.gov/Memorial/Pages/Newhall-Officers.aspx Archived August 23, 2020, at the Wayback Machine CHP Newhall incident retrieved 3/5/2020