HEROIC CIVILIAN VET HONORED FOR ROLE IN 1970 POLICE GUNBATTLE.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

VALENCIA - It's been 35 years since Gary Kness dragged a fallen highway patrolman from the spray of bullets and used the dying officer's gun to battle the two men responsible for the worst bloodshed in CHP history.

On Tuesday, 3 1/2 decades later, the veteran of the Marines was honored by the California Highway Patrol for his heroics the spring night that four officers were gunned down in the parking lot of a diner.

``Gary was not only a hero that night, he was the star witness for the prosecution,'' said CHP Sgt. Lewis Hall, who tracked Kness down to his home in Palmdale to make sure he was given a proper thank you.

It was April 5, 1970, and Kness got off Interstate 5 at what is now Magic Mountain Parkway - a country road controlled by a stop sign. He had the right-of-way, but allowed a speeding squad car to go ahead.

He watched as it screeched into a parking lot on The Old Road between Jay's Coffee Shop and a Standard gas station - now the site of a Marie Callender's restaurant and the Hilton Garden Inn.

And then the tragic Newhall Incident unfolded.

``I came down and turned onto The Old Road and I could see at the gas station ... I realized there was a gunbattle going on,'' Kness said. ``I saw only two officers at that point, and then I saw another officer fall in the street.''

He left his car in the middle of the road - he found a ticket on his windshield the following day - and ran about 100 feet to a well-lit parking lot where guns were blazing.

The battle was between two men, Bobby Davis and Jack Twining, sought for brandishing a gun a short time earlier along the freeway, and four cops who died that night trying to stop the pair.

Officers George Alleyn, Roger Gore, James Pence and Walter Frago all were under 26 and all had young children. Their legacy is the lessons learned that night, lessons still used in law enforcement training.

Two of the officers were shot before the first backup car arrived, a third quickly thereafter, and Kness, just 15 feet from a pair of killers, tried to drag a dying Officer Alleyn behind the cover of a black-and-white.

``I tried, but I couldn't, to me it was dead weight,'' he said. ``Then I found his shotgun. I tried to fire it.''

Kness, 31 years old and married, had an 18-month-old daughter at home in Saugus. A former Marine, he hadn't fired a weapon in 10 years. But he took the gun and fired ... and nothing. He pumped and fired again. The weapon was empty.

He grabbed the officer's revolver and fired a shot at Davis, hitting him in the shoulder. He was poised to strike again, knowing he had the guy, and that gun, too, proved spent.

What he saw next was chilling, part of the story that still brings on a cold sweat.

Twining shot Officer Pence point-blank, execution style.

Kness' eyes are a deep blue that turns to steel when he recalls the killer's words, a memory still so vivid.

``He said, 'I got you now, you son of a bitch,'' he repeats, no emotion in his voice.

Hearing the sirens of more backup cars - the second unit had radioed for help - it hit Kness that he would be a target, a civilian among the bloodshed who was holding a cop's revolver. He scurried about 10 yards to a drainage ditch where he stayed till more officers arrived, and in the hours that followed told his grisly story.

Meanwhile, the gunmen escaped. The morning after, Twining killed himself with a CHP-issue weapon after holding a family hostage overnight, three or four miles away. Davis was arrested miles away driving a vehicle stolen from a camper he had beaten, Hall said.

In the police station, he spotted Kness and asked that he be arrested for shooting him that night.

At the Valencia CHP station, a mile from the site of the Newhall Incident, officers, brass and trainees listened Tuesday as this man - who had been on his way to work 35 years ago when he came upon the gunbattle - was honored.

``The CHP - would like to acknowledge and thank you for how you performed in probably one of the worst days in our history when we lost four officers at one time,'' Southern Division Chief Gary Dominguez said, honoring Kness for his part after the ``officer down'' call. ``There was a guy already on the way and he wasn't wearing a uniform and he wasn't carrying a gun. Thanks, Gary.''

Kness said he has a number of awards for his heroics, but this one will take the center spot in that collection hanging on his hallway wall. ``That one's special. It's from the Highway Patrol.''

Kness doesn't see himself as a hero. He's a guy who used to be a computer operator who at 67 teaches driving. The real heroes, he said, are the men and women who put their lives on the line every day.

``They deserve the awards,'' he said. ``I don't. The ones in uniforms, they jump out there every day. I got out there once.''

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Gary Kness looks at his award from the California Highway Patrol for coming to the aid of officers in a deadly 1970 shootout.

(2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Gary Kness, 67, has been honored for coming to officers' aid in a deadly gunbattle that occurred 35 years ago.

David Crane/Staff Photographer