Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis. Michael E. Wood

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      Dedication

      I’d like to dedicate this book to my mom, Kathleen. For the three decades that my dad patrolled the highways as a “Road Warrior,” she faithfully kept the light burning for him at home. While he chased bad guys, tended to the wounded, and cleaned up the grisly wrecks, she worked, raised the boys, and anxiously awaited his safe return. She patched his wounds, physical and emotional, kept his Thermos filled with hot coffee for those long Graveyard nights, and never forgot to put an “I Love You” note in the cup. Being a highway patrolman is tough work. Being the wife of a highway patrolman is tougher. I love you, Mom. You made it look easy even when it wasn’t.

      I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Dad’s fellow patrolmen, his “Band of Brothers.” They looked out after each other and kept each other laughing when times were tough. They grew close in that special way that only men who face dangers and horrors together can. I know that Dad was proud to serve with them, to be among them, to call them his friends. To Gary, Bob, Pat, Ken, Tom, Roger, Bud, Phil, Gil, Jay, Bubba, and all the rest, you have my everlasting respect and thanks. I’m proud to have been a part of the CHP Family with you.—M.W.

      Contents

       Dedication

       Acknowledgments

       Foreword—By Massad Ayoob

       Preface

       Introduction

       Section 1: The Shooting

       Introduction

       Chapter 1: Prelude

       Chapter 2: The Stop

       Chapter 3: The Approach and Initial Shots Fired

       Chapter 4: The Second Unit Arrives

       Chapter 5: A Heroic Attempt

       Chapter 6: The Flanking Movement

       Chapter 7: More Backup Arrives

       Special Section: Photo Gallery

       Section 2: The State of CHP Training in 1970

       Introduction

       Chapter 8: Internal Struggles

       Chapter 9: Firearms Training

       Chapter 10: Growing Pains

       Chapter 11: Princes of the Highway

       Section 3: Analysis of the Newhall Gunfight

       Introduction

       Chapter 12: Massad Ayoob’s Priorities of Survival

       Chapter 13: Mental Awareness and Preparedness

       Chapter 14: Proper Use of Tactics

       Chapter 15: Skill With the Safety Equipment

       Chapter 16: Optimum Choice of Safety Rescue Equipment

       Section 4: Where Are We Now?

       Introduction

       Chapter 17: The Immediate Aftermath

       Chapter 18: Mid-Life Crisis

       Chapter 19: The Long Haul

       Chapter 20: State of the Industry

       Appendix A: A History of CHP Firearms, Equipment, and Firearms Training

       Copyright

      Foreword

      By Massad Ayoob

      The slaughter of four young California Highway Patrol Officers at Newhall, in 1970, was a watershed experience in the history of American law enforcement. It was the slap in the face that awoke the profession to the fact that its training, collectively, had stagnated. Newhall became the dawn of officer survival training for modern police.

      Many lessons were learned in the sacrifice of those four brave men at the hands of two classic examples of feral homo sapiens. Lessons of risk assessment and tactics. The realization that there is a time to approach and a time to fall back and contain. The importance of adequate weapons and of reality-based training and policy.

      CHP’s honest self-assessment led to sweeping changes in the way police were equipped and in the ways high-risk policing was accomplished. We will never know how many police lives have since been saved by the lessons that grew from the martyrdom of Patrolmen Alleyn, Frago, Gore, and Pence.

      Time went on. Memory dimmed. This writer became a law enforcement trainer two years after Newhall, when the tragedy was fresh in the collective mind of the police establishment; CHP’s training film on the incident was practically mandatory viewing for cops nationwide. By the twenty-first century, though, we had a generation of young officers for whom Newhall had dropped from the radar screen.

      One observer who recognized this was Mike Wood. Not wishing to see the lessons of the tragedy blurred, he began to dig. His fresh eye uncovered details that had not been widely known. Mike reached far beyond the crime scene and into politics and mores of the time. He uncovered salient points that helped us gain a fresh understanding of why four productive lives had been cut so tragically short that night in Newhall.

      Mike Wood’s book is, I think, the best and most comprehensive analysis of the incident yet. It reminds us that the keys to surviving violent encounters