The California Highway Patrol Newhall Office, along with all CHP officers and other law enforcement members, remember four of their brothers killed during the “Newhall Incident” 50 years ago.

On April 5, shortly before midnight Officers Walt Frago, Roger Gore, James Pence and George Alleyn were killed by Bobby Augustus Davis and Jack Twining, a pair of career criminals, during a traffic stop.

Davis and Twining had met each other while in federal prison, and when the two were released they reunited in Houston Texas. Both Davis and Twining decided to move out to the Los Angeles area but had trouble finding consistent work due to their criminal records.

After renting an apartment in Long Beach, the two friends encountered an armored truck which delivered cash to the Santa Anita Racetrack. They tracked the truck on its usual route and decided on a plan to rob the truck on a freeway ramp. But to accomplish their plan, they needed explosives.

The two decided to go look for explosives in a construction site north of Castaic but got scared away by a family eying them on the side of the road in an overheated vehicle.

The two suspects fled the scene, almost sideswiping a witness, who then tried to follow the car. When the suspects pulled a gun, the witness reported it to law enforcement officials.

Patrolmen Gore and his partner, Frago, spotted the vehicle that the two suspects were driving and followed them as they exited the freeway onto Henry Mayo Drive, which is now Magic Mountain Parkway.

Patrolmen Pence and his partner, Alleyn, were driving in their patrol car near the 5Freeway and Valencia Boulevard and picked up the radio call from Gore and Frago and prepared to back them up.

The Pontiac occupied by the two suspects pulled into a driveway. Gore exited the patrol car to apprehend the two suspects. While Gore was patting down Davis, Frago covered him with a shotgun.

Suddenly, Twining exited the vehicle and fire two fatal rounds from a .357 magnum at Frago. Distracted by the gunfire from the passenger, Gore could not react in time as Davis pulled out a gun and shot and killed him with a Smith and Wesson revolver.

“Newhall, 78-12! 11-99! Shots fired. J’s Restaurant parking lot.” Pence sent this desperate dispatch message as he and Alleyn pulled into the gas station driveway and saw their two comrades lying on the pavement.

Abandoned car at the scene of the shooting. Officers examine a car believed used by the two suspects. Photo courtesy of SCV History.

A gun battle took place between the suspects crouched behind the Pontiac and the two officers.

Despite their best efforts, both Pence and Alleyn were shot and killed during the battle with the suspects.

Gary Dean Kness, a civilian, was driving by J’s Coffee Shop on his way to work when he saw the gun battle taking place at the Standard station.

As Kness witnessed one of the wounded officers fall to the ground, Kness raced out of his car to the officer’s side, and tried to pull him out of the line of fire.

While helping the officer, Kness saw one of the suspects approaching him with a sawed-off shotgun.

The civilian instinctively picked up the officer’s shotgun and attempted to fire at the suspect, but the gun was empty. He then picked up a revolver and was able to fire off a shot at the suspect, who took off and ran wounded from the gunshot.

Kness was honored by the CHP for his heroic efforts to save the officer, both on June 5, 1970, at a Memorial Wall dedication at the Highway Patrol office on the Old Road, and in April, 2008 when a portion of Interstate 5 was named for the four downed officers.

Never before had so many officers been killed in one incident.

On April 6 1970, Governor Ronald Reagan, shaken by the news, made the following succinct yet profound statement: Early today — four young California Highway Patrolmen gave their lives to protect their fellow citizens.  They did so without hesitation. They did so — because heroism and dedication to duty were things they simply accepted as part of their job. Often — the only thing that stands between citizens and the loss of everything they hold dear is the man wearing the badge.

The four officers who gave the ultimate sacrifice, in what is now known as the Newhall Incident, have not been forgotten by the members of the California Highway Patrol or the citizens of the community they were sworn to serve.

We are proud to honor the memory of Officers Frago, Gore, Pence and Alleyn and reaffirm our solemn promise to always remember their heroic commitment to lay down their lives rather than swerve from the path of duty.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the two suspects took off in opposite directions by foot. Davis headed up San Francisquito Canyon Road where he was apprehended by police officers.

He was eventually convicted and sentenced to death, but his sentence was changed to life in prison when the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty.

Davis died in August 2009 of an apparent suicide.

Twining ended up barricaded in the home of Steven and Betty Jean Hoag on Pico Canyon Road near the Old Road, where he shot himself to death when the house was surrounded by the police. He had previously sworn that he would never return to prison.

Ed. Note: Some of the above information was provided to KHTS by the California Highway Patrol.

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