agingrebel | Schmall quotes three recent veterans who have the experience to hear
the difference between gunshots from different caliber weapons. Marine
veteran William English remembers two shots from a small caliber weapon
followed by “a rapid succession of shots from what sounded to me like an
assault rifle.”
Navy veteran Steve Cochran “heard one pistol shot. All the rest of the shots I heard were assault rifles.”
Schmall writes, “Ron Blackett, a Confederation of Clubs and
Independents leader who is a former Army and Coast Guard officer, also
reported hearing one or two pistol shots followed by a blast of assault
rifle fire.”
Accounts of the exact number of pistol shots fired before the police
fusillade vary. They vary because witnesses are always surprised and
alarmed and not only hear shots from different directions but also may
or may not hear echoes. However the AP account is consistent
with a recurring version in which one biker non-fatally shot another at
close range and a second biker standing on the Twin Peaks patio
brandished and possibly fired a second handgun. It is likely that police
opened fire after seeing the biker on the patio pull his gun. The AP
version would also explain how Vietnam veteran Jesus Delgado Rodriguez,
who was not a member of any club and who had just gotten out his
automobile was shot in the head and torso. And it explains how so many
people were shot in such a brief time.
