Homicide Detective (Sgt.) John Brady, reported that:
“The whole thing almost ended right there. Officer Alleyn hit both Davis and Twining with the shotgun blasts. A pellet from Alleyn’s shotgun streaked across the top of Twining’s scalp, ripping an angry red gash. If it had been just a little lower, it could have opened the top of his skull, or at least knocked him down. Davis was turned sideways to Alleyn. A shotgun pellet tore right over the bridge of his nose. If he had been looking directly back at the officer, the pellet would have hit him right between the eyes.”
The LASO booking pictures of Davis clearly show the wound to his nose. Thus, it was only by the slimmest of margins that Officer Alleyn’s shots were unsuccessful. It’s an appealing exercise to ponder what might have happened if he hadn’t ejected the unfired round prior to shooting and had been able to fire it at Twining after the rear window was ballistically compromised by the previous shots. Kolman, J., Capt.. (2009) Rulers of the Night, Volume I: 1958-1988. Santa Ana, CA: Graphic Publishers, pp. 132-133.
22. The number of spent .45 ACP cases at the scene indicates Twining had the second (Colt) 1911A1 pistol loaded similarly to the first; that is, with a fully loaded magazine of seven rounds and an eighth in the chamber. Based on the pattern of spent cases recovered at the scene, Twining fired three shots from a position somewhere between the driver’s side door of the Pontiac and the left front fender of the Pontiac with the Colt 1911A1 pistol (Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department evidence tags JHC #4,5,6) Some witness accounts (Ball, Barth) place Twining back at the front of the Pontiac during this phase of the gunfight, but other witness accounts (Tancredi) contradict that. The pattern of spent cases suggests that he may have fired from a position that was closer to the side of the car than the front, but blood evidence indicates that Twining may actually have been closer to the front of the car. Of note, in the CHP’s account of the shooting, Twining fires on Officer Pence from the front left corner of the Pontiac, using it for cover during this phase of the shootout.
Witness accounts indicate it is possible that Twining engaged both Officer Pence and Officer Alleyn with these pistol shots. A spent .45-caliber bullet was found by investigators on the ground between Unit 78-12 and Unit 78-8, on the right side of 78-12 (Sheriff’s Evidence Tag #23). California Highway Patrol. (1975) Newhall: 1970 [Film] and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide investigation files.
23. Crime scene photos show a pair of bullet strikes on the left side of the Pontiac that were likely fired by Officer Pence, due to the angle of impact. One strike is above the gas door at the junction of the rear deck lid and the roof pillar, and another is forward, underneath the left rear side window. The left rear side window itself was also hit near the top center, shattering that window, perhaps by Officer Pence or perhaps by one of Officer Alleyn’s shotgun pellets. It’s likely the pair of rounds that struck the body of the car were fired at Twining as he emerged from the driver’s side and began to engage Officer Pence. There were additional bullet strikes in the dash of the Pontiac that could also have been caused by Officer Pence, Officer Alleyn, or Officer Holmes. The left rear tire of the Pontiac was also flattened when the car was recovered, and it’s possible that Officer Pence or Officer Holmes could have struck it with gunfire. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide investigation files, California Highway Patrol. (1975) Newhall: 1970 [Film]. Sacramento, CA, courtesy of Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society and SCVTV, <http://www.scvtv.com/html/newhall1970-chp1975btv.html>.
24. The white spotlight on Unit 78-8 was raised and had been hit three times during the fight, presumably by shotgun pellets fired from Davis’ gun. This spotlight would have been directly in front of Officer Alleyn’s face as he kneeled and fired the Remington 870 shotgun in the crotch between the vehicle and the frame of the open door. It is possible that Officer Alleyn was injured by debris from the spotlight after it was struck, or by an actual pellet from Davis’ shotgun, before he left his position at the door.
25. A bullet struck the dashboard of the Pontiac forward of the steering wheel from the rear at some point during the gunfight. The bullet skidded for seven inches along the dash and struck the windshield from the inside, approximately 16.5 inches to the right of the left side moulding, leaving a piece of the bullet jacket in the dash (Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department evidence tag #JW3, collected by Sergeant James Warner). Another bullet struck the dash, above the glovebox on the passenger side of the Pontiac. Bullet fragments from this strike were recovered under the hood of the vehicle, about 15 inches towards the center of the vehicle from the right fender (Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department evidence tag #JW2). It’s unknown if these two bullets were fired by Officer Alleyn, Pence or Holmes. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide investigation files.
26. Multiple witnesses reported seeing Davis shoot at Pence with the shotgun, and a pattern of three ejected shotshells (Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department evidence tags JHC #10,12,13) suggests that one round could have been fired during Davis’ advance on the patrol cars (the other two were known to be fired at Officer Alleyn). Unit 78-12 was struck on the right side by multiple projectiles at some point during the fight, but it is unknown if these strikes were from the revolver gunfire of Davis and Twining as 78-12 arrived on scene, or the single shotgun blast fired by Davis from the front of the Pontiac, which streaked across the hood of the CHP car. It’s possible that none of the earlier shots caused the damage and that it was the result of Davis firing at Pence while he advanced. The right rear window of 78-12 was completely shot out with no glass hanging, and the center of the right passenger window was also shot out, but a rim of shattered glass hung around the edges of the window. There was a hit between the two windows on the vertical portion of the pillar, as well as a hit on the right front fender, about 12:30 to 1:00 position from the tire. There was also a hit on the bottom edge of the door above the running board, at about 5:30 position from the CHP star on the door. The left rear tire was also flat, suggesting a projectile may have skipped underneath the car and struck it. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide investigation files.
27. As previously discussed in Endnote 24, Officer Alleyn may have been wounded at this point, with blood running into his eyes and disrupting his vision and his ability to place accurate fire on Davis.
28. The round fired by Officer Alleyn struck the rear window of Unit 78-8 about 2.75 inches above the moulding and 18.75 inches to the right of the left moulding. The bullet was later recovered from the rear of the driver’s seat, about three inches below the top edge of the seat and in line with the hole in the window. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide investigation files.
29. There are multiple contradictions in witness testimony during this phase of the battle.
Some witnesses claimed that the CHP shotgun had been retrieved earlier in the fight, and there is confusion about whether Davis or Twining was the person who picked it up. However, the preponderance of evidence suggests that the shotgun had not been retrieved prior to this point and that Davis was the one to recover it.
A witness claimed that Davis struggled with the CHP shotgun and inadvertently fired it while trying to work the gun. After the accidental discharge, the shotgun was placed in the car, according to the witness. Importantly, this testimony matches the CHP’s version of the event, as well.
The physical evidence tends to discredit this narrative, however. An accounting of the ammunition from this shotgun indicates that one spent CHP shotgun shell and three live CHP shotgun rounds were found with the weapon at the Hoag house, where Twining had taken hostages later in the day during his escape attempt. The spent shell was found in the hallway of the Hoag house next to Twining’s dead body, along with two other spent shells supplied from Twining’s own stock. (Fortunately, the brand and hull color of the CHP’s shotgun ammunition differed from the ammunition that the felons brought to the fight, making it easy to identify the source—the CHP issued Western Super-X ammunition with red hulls, while Davis and Twining had brought Remington-Peters
