Shootouts That Changed History

Experience can be a rough teacher. You learn the lesson before you even know you need it. And in the world of firearms, experience can be a harsh mistress.

Bad experiences are what have helped craft modern-day gunfighting tactics. Hard lessons learned are now used to keep people alive and to allow the good guys to triumph.

There have been tons of fights and experiences that have helped mold modern tactics and defensive skills, but I have selected three particular shootouts that drastically changed the way things are approached.

Today, we are going to take a look at these events and how they impacted modern gunfighting.

The Newhall Incident

On April 5th, 1970, two career criminals were planning their next job — an armored car robbery.

The men, Jack Twinning and Bobby Davis, were small-time hoods with a string of failed bank robberies and prison sentences on their record.

On that night, they were looking to steal explosives from a local construction site for their next job.

However, Bobby Davis had just brandished a gun after a near case of road rage. A dime was dropped, and a pay phone call was made to California Highway Patrol. A description of his Red Pontiac was relayed to troopers in the area.

California Highway Patrol Officers Frago and Gore pulled up behind the Red Pontiac, observing two male occupants. They started their stop procedure, and the Pontiac exited the freeway and pulled into the parking lot of a coffee shop.

The troopers issued the order to exit the vehicle, and Davis complied. Davis assumed the position on the hood, and Officer Gore searched him.

Officer Frago approached the second man with a shotgun held at high port. Before he could even reach the door, Twinning came out of the Pontiac, shooting an S&W Model 28, immediately killing Officer Frago before taking a shot at Gore.

Gore drew and began exchanging gunfire with Twinning, and with Davis being an afterthought, he never saw Davis pull an S&W Model 49. Davis shot Gore twice at point-blank range, killing him.

CHP Officers Alleyn and Pence had been waiting nearby as backup and responded immediately. They arrived just after Gore had been shot and were immediately engaged by Davis and Twinning. They emptied their revolvers before retrieving more guns from inside the car.

Alleyn fired his Remington 870 rapidly, emptying every round he had. In the chaos, he even ejected a live round. Only a single pellet of buckshot struck one of the criminals and only left a superficial wound. Officer Pence had begun fighting with his Colt Python, quickly expending all six rounds.

When Alleyn’s shotgun ran empty, he drew his S&W Model 19 and kept fighting. Davis had swapped to a sawn-off 12 gauge and returned fire at Alleyn. He struck him with multiple pellets of buckshot, killing the officer.

Pence had moved to reload his revolver with the standard issue dump pouch. This dump pouch would dump six loose rounds into the officer’s hand, leaving him to reload them one at a time. Twinning took advantage of Pence being distracted and approached the man and fired two shots, killing him immediately.

Davis was later captured, and Twinning killed himself. The story I’ve told is condensed and leaves out the brave actions of Gary Kness, a former Marine who stopped to help the officers.

Lessons Learned 

The Newhall Incident highlighted a major need for change in law enforcement tactics and defensive firearms use.

The patrolmen were all armed with .357 Magnum revolvers firing .357 Magnum rounds. However, all of these troopers had been trained using .38 Special. The .38 special rounds have much less recoil, and the lack of training with the hotter .357 magnum likely through them for a loop.

The patrolmen were also trained to fire in a bullseye-style one-handed shooting stance that did not maximize control over their weapons. There was also a lack of familiarity with their service shotguns that led to Alleyn ejecting a live round and Frago carrying his weapon the wrong way.

To this day, this shootout is often referenced as to why we reload our handguns facing the threat, as it maximizes situational awareness.

There was also a significant move away from dump pouches toward modern speedloaders. The dump pouches were too slow and cumbersome, especially in a fight.

It bears mentioning there was a rumor regarding Pence and pocketed brass. The CHP trained troopers to pocket their spent casings at the range, and a myth circulated that Pence had pocketed his brass before reloading. This is a complete myth, as his casings were found on the ground.

CHP revamped its entire training process after the Newhall Incident.

The 1986 FBI Miami Shootout

On April 11th, 1986, a team of 14 FBI agents in 11 different cars were on the prowl for a pair of armed robbers in the Miami area.

The agents did not know who exactly they were searching for, but they were looking for a 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and were acting on a hunch that two armed robbers would be looking to hit a score that morning.

Robbers Michael Platt and William Matix had been hitting armored cars and banks. They were well-armed and violent, leaving a trail of wounded and dead in their wake. The two men had both served as MPs in the Army and had no criminal records.

The FBI hunch was right, and the men were out that day. At 9:30 AM, they spotted the Monte Carlo and began following it. Eventually, two other FBI cars joined them, and they attempted to stop the vehicle.

They had to force the Monte Carlo off the road as the driver resisted the traffic stop procedure. This collision had ill effects on the FBI agents; Two agents lost their service revolvers, and one lost his glasses.

The remaining FBI agents were armed with a mix of semi-automatic pistols and revolvers. Two of the Agents carried Remington 870 shotguns.

It bears mentioning that while 14 agents were searching, only eight participated in the gunfight that followed. The other six didn’t arrive until it was over.

The two bank robbers were stuck inside their car due to their location and a jammed door. Matix carried a S&W 3000 shotgun, Platt had a Mini 14, and both were carrying handguns.

Agent Grogan landed the first hit of the gunfight with his S&W 459 9mm pistol, striking Matix in the forearm. Agent Manuzzi, who lost his revolver in the collision, was injured by a shotgun blast. Immediately after, Agent McNeill engaged the men but was quickly wounded by Platt.

Agent Mireles, who was carrying an 870, raced to join the fight, and as he did, Platt shot him in the left forearm with a round of .223 Remington. McNeil, who was wounded, remained in the fight and fired six shots from his revolver, striking Matix in the head and neck with two rounds and knocking him unconscious.

McNeill was then shot in the hand and could not reload his revolver. Platt began to escape from the vehicle by climbing through the passenger window when Agent Dove landed a 9mm round into his upper arm that penetrated through to his chest. This shot was later determined to have collapsed Platt’s lung.

Platt escaped the vehicle and climbed over another car where it’s likely Dove shot him two more times in the right thigh and left foot.

After taking cover behind the car and firing his revolver at the agents, Platt was shot a fourth time in the right forearm by Agent Orrantia’s revolver and, after dropping his revolver, was shot a fifth time by Agent Risner in the upper right arm.

Wounded, Platt managed to fire a round from his rifle, wounding Orrantia in the left shoulder and striking Agent McNeill in the neck, finally taking McNeill out of the fight. Platt fired at Dove and struck his pistol, rendering it inoperable.

Agent Hanlon and Platt exchanged gunfire, and when Hanlon reloaded, Platt struck him in the hand. Agents Grogan, Platt, and Dove took cover behind a single car. Grogan and Dove were attempting to get Dove’s handgun working when Platt advanced on them.

Platt fired around the corner, killing Dove and Grogan and wounding Hanlon. He then attempted to take their car. Agent Mireles, who we recall was severely injured one arm by a rifle round, engaged Platt with his Remington 870.

He worked a pump shotgun with a single arm and fired a round that injured Platt. During the fight, Matix regained consciousness and climbed into the car with Platt. Mireles fired four more rounds from his shotgun but did not land any shots.

Platt fired three more rounds from Matix’s .357 Magnum revolver at Mireles. Mireles then ditched the shotgun, drew his S&W 686, and moved directly at the suspects. He fired all six rounds and killed both men, ending the gunfight.

The gunfight lasted five minutes and saw an exchange of 145 shots. Two FBI agents were killed, both bank robbers were killed, and five FBI agents were wounded.

Lessons Learned

The FBI quickly conducted a study and thorough examination of the fight. One of the main culprits they blamed was the lack of stopping power of their handguns, which were chambered in 9mm and 38 Special +P.

It bears mentioning that the 9mm of this era was not as effective as the 9mm of our era. A quick glance at old reloading manuals shows that the old-school 9mm wasn’t much better than the modern .380 ACP.

Neither of these rounds did well through cars or even when fired through body parts.

Two shots went through the arms of the Platt, and while one hit his lung, he was able to keep fighting. If it had taken out both lungs, it may have ended the fight early.

This led to the FBI’s adoption of the 10mm and later the .40 S&W before eventually moving to the modern 9mm loadings round that we all know and love.

The FBI also noted the difficulty agents had to reload their revolvers in the fight. This led to the FBI getting rid of revolvers and switching to semi-autos.

An important lesson learned is that handguns suck at fighting, especially when your opponent has a long gun. Several other FBI cars had shotguns, M16s, and MP5s, but those didn’t make it to the firefight.

North Hollywood Shootout

One of the most famous examples of modern shootouts comes from Hollywood, but it was no feature film.

On February 26th, 1997, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Mătăsăreanu robbed the North Hollywood branch of Bank of America, heavily armed and armored, conducting one of the most brazen daylight gun battles ever.

These two were experienced thieves who had been hitting armored cars and banks since 1993 and were known as the High Incident Bandits. Their modus operandi was to use rifles and body armor mixed with shock tactics to lift well over a million dollars during their robberies.

On February 26th, they arrived at the Bank of America branch and set stopwatches for eight minutes, which was the estimated response time of local police.

However, a patrol car was passing by as the two heavily armored and armed men entered the bank. Both men carried Chinese Type 56 rifles AK clones that had been converted to select fire, and each had 75 to 100-round drum magazines.

They had taken over 300,000 dollars before locking innocent bystanders in the vault and attempting their escape. Before the men exited the bank, several patrol cars arrived and positioned themselves strategically out front.

As Larry exited the bank through the north entrance, he spotted the police cruisers and opened fire. He fired for several minutes, wounding six officers and three civilians. He also opened fire at an LAPD helicopter, forcing it to retreat to a safer distance.

The police returned fire with a mix of S&W Model 15 revolvers, Beretta 92FS pistols, and Ithaca 37 shotguns. At 200 feet, the weapons did not have the reach or penetration necessary to stop the armored gunmen.

The cops and robbers exchanged gunfire several times, and the officers found themselves outgunned and pinned down. Several officers went to a local sporting goods store and obtained AR-15s.

At one point, Emil was wounded in the right buttock, right left, and left forearm, but he managed to retrieve the getaway car as Larry covered him. Larry retrieved an HK91 from the trunk of the getaway car and opened fire on the officers.

This began a very low-speed chase as the car slowly moved, and Larry fired on the police officers.

Officers managed to strike Larry’s rifle and wrist, rendering him unable to use the HK91. He grabbed a Type 56 and opened fire as he retreated from the parking lot. Emil departed the bank in the car, and the two men were separated.

Larry was pursued and took cover behind a semi-truck. He engaged officers until his rifle jammed but was unable to fix the jam due to his hand wound. He dropped the rifle and switched to his Beretta 92FS and began firing, but was quickly shot in the hand.

He dropped the gun briefly but retrieved it and took his own life.

Emil’s vehicle received a dose of lead in the tires, and he was forced to abandon it. He attempted to carjack a vehicle by shooting at the driver. The driver fled but activated an electrical kill switch, rendering the vehicle inoperable.

SWAT arrived and engaged Emil, who began firing his XM-15 rifle and didn’t stop for two minutes. One of the officers fired under the vehicle and struck Emil several times in the legs. Emil stopped firing but died of blood loss before ambulances could reach him.

The firefight lasted 44 minutes, with the criminal duo having fired over 1,100 rounds. The only deaths were the gunmen.

Lessons Learned

This massive, insane, and media-covered shootout changed policing for good.

At this time, the average officer carried a handgun and shotgun in their cruiser, and rifles were reserved for SWAT teams. Even SWAT teams tended to stick with the MP5 over AR-15s.

After the shootout, the LAPD SWAT teams began issuing AR-15s to supplement their MP5s, and the patrol rifle grew in popularity across the nation.

The DOD gave 600 surplus M16s to the LAPD, with every patrol sergeant being issued a rifle. Eventually, every LAPD Patrol car was equipped with an AR-15, and their doors were fitted with bullet-resistant Kevlar.

Since then, the AR-15 has become the standard patrol weapon of choice for modern police forces. Its versatility has seen it usurp the shotgun and submachinegun for general-purpose use.

Final Thoughts

These three incidents are often cited as catalysts for major changes in gear, guns, and tactics when it comes to modern gunfights.

Everything from the guns we carry and the calibers we select to how we reload is partially a product of the lessons learned from these events.

What are your thoughts on the events that unfolded and how they have changed the landscape of gunfighting? Let us know in the comments below! Be sure to also check out our article, FBI Ammo Test Protocol: How It Shaped the Industry!