A Witness’ Wild Tale … ‘I Did Some Shooting’

APRIL 8, 1970

A Saugus man was discovered yesterday by The Signal to have been a participant as well as the best eye witness to Sunday night’s bloody gun, battle at a Valencia coffee shop which resulted in the deaths of four young Highway Patrolmen.

Before he knew it, 31-yearold Gary Kness was in the middle of the tragic battle exchanging gunfire with a killer who advanced’ on him with a weapon.

Kness, of 28206 Tambora Drive, Saugus, was on his way to work Sunday night at Hydraulic Research in the industrial park in Rye Canyon where he works the “third shift,” beginning at midnight.

He had just brought his car to a halt at-the four way stop sign at Henry Mayo Drive, and the Golden State Freeway off-ramp when a Highway Patrol car turned on to Henry Mayo Drive from the freeway off-ramp and disappeared around the “corner towards J’s Coffee Shop.

The patrol car’s emergency lights were not on and Kness said he did not suspect anything to be wrong.

He couldn’t believe his eyes, however when he started around the corner.

He had driven into the midst of the bloodiest gunfight in the 41 year history of the Highway Patrol.

“I saw two officers firing,” Kness said. They were patrolmen James E. Pence and George M. Alleyn who were the third and fourth officers to arrive at the scene.

Kness said, he quickly pulled his car to the side of the road and turned off his lights and watched.

For about three minutes he said he watched two patrolmen exchange bullets with the two men. He said he could only actually see one of the gunmen but added: “I knew there was someone else there because I saw the gun flash,” he explained.

When he saw one of the officers get hit by gunfire he said he got out of his car and rushed up to the wounded patrolman.

As Kness ran up he said the partner of the wounded officer was crouched behind the other patrol car still firing away at the unseen suspect.

When I ran up I saw a third officer was already down,” Kness said. For the first time, he saw officer Roger D. Gore, who with his partner, Walter C. Frago, had been the first officer to pull over the two men. He still had not seen Frago.

“I was in back of the police car trying to pull the wounded man back by his belt.” Kness said, when one of the suspects, “a tall fella,” started moving towards him. The two Highway Patrol cars, Kness explained, were both parked behind the suspects’ vehicle, one patrol car to the left side and one directly behind the car. Kness pulled the wounded patrolman back behind the car directly behind the suspects’ car.

One gunman started moving from in front of his car towards Kness and Kness grabbed the bloody shotgun from the fallen patrolman, pointed it around the

side of the car and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened because the gun was apparently empty, Kness said. But it prompted the armed killer to retreat back towards the front of his own car again.

Kness said he then crouched above the trunk of the patrol car to try for another shot. In the meantime, the one uninjured policeman was still exchanging fire with the other gunman.

“The shotgun was empty,” he said. “He fired a couple of shots.” Kness was asked if they were directed at him. “I don’t know,” there were so many pellets flying around.”

The first gunman then started moving back towards Kness again. “I started looking around on the ground for anything,” Kness said. He finally found one of the officer’s hand guns, blood covered, on the ground and picked it up.

“I got one shot off but after that it was empty,” said Kness. The suspect may have been hit by Kness’ shot but he isn’t sure. “He wavered back away again.”

“Just about the time I got my one round off I realized the last officer (Pence or Alleyn) had been hit.” Kness said he heard the officer moaning and turned to see him slump to the pavement.

“I still couldn’t see the second gunman very good,” Kness said, but in seconds the killer was standing over the fourth officer’s body, “hollering” Kness said. In the confusion he said he can’t remember or discern what he was hollering.

Kness said he then realized that there was nothing more he could do so he ran for cover.

“I went for the ditch,” he said, referring to a drainage ditch off to the side of the roadway.

The gunman standing over the patrolman then yelled to his partner who had been shooting at Kness to get in the car. He did, Kness said, and the other man followed.

Kness then saw a third Highway Patrol car coming “down the road and the two suspects took off through the gas station toward a dead end road.

Apparently they rammed into the embankment at the end of the road and took off on foot. Kness said he thinks there were some shots fired at the two men as they fled.

“Police just started flooding the area then,” he said, and as he got up and walked back to see about the wounded patrolmen, he saw a fourth wounded officer, probably Frago, for the first time. He had been hidden from Kness’ view on the other side of one of the patrol cars.

Yesterday Kness was reluctant to offer his opinion as to how two men could have shot and killed four highly armed patrolmen because he said he does not know all the circumstances.

“I hate to stipulate Just what I think happened,” he said.

But, he thinks possibly the first two patrolmen, Frago and Gore “didn’t know what hit them.” The second two had been surprised also, he guessed.

As to the possibility that the last patrolman had run out of ammunition, Kness said, “It surprised me to see that he was shot,” He said he thought the officer had been well protected behind the patrol car and figured that he indeed either did run out of ammunition or had his gun jammed.

Kness, who said he last had experiences with guns 10 years ago in the Army, was very eager to compliment the other law men who arrived at the scene.

“They were very cool,” he said. “They could have very well shot me when they got there because I was running from the police cars.”

“I thought they did an exceptionally good job.”

He said it was not until after the shootout was over that he realized what a close call he had. He was covered on face and hands with blood and it wasn’t until afterwards that he realized he was only 12 feet from the second gunman as he was standing over the wounded patrolman.

But, nonetheless, he minimized his role in the tragic event saying, “I was only trying to help a man who was hurt. That was all.”