By Tony Saavedra
The Whittier Daily News
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — In urgent shouts amped with adrenaline, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies repeatedly yelled for the Cook’s Corner gunman to surrender last August in a gun battle shown for the first time in video footage released Friday.
But the deputy’s expletive-filled commands went unheeded and the five-minute shootout didn’t end until the gunman who had killed three and injured six others lay dead himself.
The video footage from the body camera of a rifle-bearing deputy and from the dash camera of a patrol car shows that from the second they arrived the evening of Aug. 23, seven deputies were battling with the killer, a retired Ventura police sergeant, at the Trabuco Canyon roadhouse.
The shooter was later identified as 59-year-old John Patrick Snowling.
Sheriff’s officials said Snowling entered the bar, walked directly to his wife, Marie, and opened fire without a word. He hit Marie Sprawling, who had earlier filed for divorce, once in the jaw before shooting randomly at other patrons. A 911 caller said the gunman took aim at members of the band appearing that night, who were among the injured.
Killed were Tonya Clark, 49, of Scottsdale, Arizona, Glen Sprowl Jr., 53, of Stanton and John Leehey, 67, of Irvine.
Snowling then walked out of the bar to get a third handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun from his truck, where he was confronted by deputies.
Footage from a Cook’s Corner security camera showed Snowling emerging from the bar with a gun in each hand, sending patrons scrambling for cover. In a baseball cap, wearing jeans and a blue, button-down shirt, Snowling made his way to the bar’s upper parking lot.
In 911 calls released Friday by the sheriff’s department, patrons frantically sought help. It was just after 7 p.m.
“He’s still shooting!” one caller said.
“Everybody’s getting shot at Cook’s Corner,” said another.
Deputies arrived within two minutes of being dispatched, guns drawn as they hurriedly tried to locate the shooter, the video shows.
They found him by a silver truck with the door open, standing behind a tree. Snowling, a trained, former law enforcement officer, had the advantage of being uphill from the deputies, who took cover behind their patrol vehicles.
Marked by staccato gun blasts, the video shows deputies calling out to one another in the evening dusk, asking for cover so they could reload or move to another location, and letting one another know what the gunman was doing.
“He’s right behind the tree!” called the deputy with the rifle.
Another deputy responded: “Which tree? There’s multiple trees.”
“The big tree, right behind the big tree!”
Quickly deputies zeroed in on the shooter. They could see him with a shotgun in hand, reloading.
“Hands in the air!” one deputy commanded.
They watched as he popped his head from behind the tree.
“He took his cap off, he took his cap off!” said a deputy who appeared to be watching through a rifle scope.
The deputy with the rifle changed magazine after magazine of ammunition, dropping the empty mags on the ground. Sheriff’s officials would later say more than 70 rounds were fired in the chaotic shoot out.
The flurry of bullets didn’t stop until the call came, “He’s proned out!”
Cautiously, deputies approached Snowling, who lay on the ground, shotgun by his feet.
With the gunman dead, deputies began helping to treat the injured, said sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Gonzalez.
The video was released as part of a critical incident report, which is issued following the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers or deputies, under the theory that the public has a right to see why and how it happened.
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