Читать книгу Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis. An inside look at the most tragic and influential police gunfight of the modern era. онлайн

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There is no reason to believe that the brass was recovered at the Coroner’s Office in Officer Pence’s pocket during post-mortem examinations, then transported back to the scene of the crime to be fraudulently deposited there, as some have speculated. The timeline doesn’t support such a theory, because the bodies had not been transported to the coroner yet when Sgt. Brady first arrived on scene and saw the brass on the ground. Additionally, to coordinate this kind of conspiracy, a large number of people from different agencies would have to have been compelled to lie about a very minor detail of the case, at a time when the investigation was just beginning and they were struggling to understand the very basics of what had occurred during this monumental event. It hardly seems likely that this minor detail of evidence would have been perceived as critical enough to warrant a conspiracy to lie this early in the case.

Officer Pence did not pocket his spent brass.

In the wake of Newhall, the CHP made an intensive study of training practices and made many corrections to ensure that bad habits that would jeopardize officer safety on the street were not taught during training. One of these corrections was a requirement to eject brass onto the ground during training and clean it up later, rather than eject it neatly into the hand and drop it into a can or bucket, as had been the practice before. It is believed that instructors and cadets of the era may have mistakenly believed that this change in policy was due to a specific error made by Officer Pence during the fight. The myth began, and it was innocently perpetuated throughout generations of officers in the CHP and allied agencies.