Cops continue search for ex-policeman
2013-02-08 14:54
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Los Angeles - Police searched the mountains surrounding a
California ski area on Thursday for a fired Los Angeles policeman accused of
killing three people, after he declared war on law enforcement officers and
their families in a rambling internet manifesto.
The bloodshed attributed to Christopher Dorner, 33, began
with the weekend slayings of a university safety officer and his fiancée,
Monica Quan, 28.
She was the daughter of a retired Los Angeles police
captain who represented Dorner in disciplinary action that led to his firing in
2008. Quan and her fiancé were found dead in Irvine, about 64km south of Los
Angeles.
The violence escalated on Thursday with the fatal
shooting of a police officer in Riverside and the wounding of two others.
Dorner's pickup truck was later found burning in the snow
near the mountain resort of Big Bear Lake, 129km northeast of Los Angeles.
Investigators, who are now searching with air units and
dogs, found tracks leading away from the truck, but they did not lead to the
suspect.
"There's snow on the ground in a lot of the areas
they're searching, and it's dark," Cindy Bachman, a spokesperson for the
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department told reporters at Big Bear Lake.
"It's very difficult to search in these conditions."
Bachman said schools and a ski resort in the Big Bear
Lake area would re-open on Friday amid speculation Dorner might have left the
area.
"I can tell you now that they have been searching
for many hours and they have not found him," Bachman said.
Dorner, who joined the Navy in 2002 and the Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD) in 2005 and was a naval reservist until Friday, had posted
his grievances on Facebook in what police see as a potential hit list. Police
have taken steps to protect some 40 potential targets.
"This is a vendetta against all of Southern
California law enforcement and it should be seen as such," Los Angeles
Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters.
"He knows what he's doing. We trained him... He was
also a member of the armed forces. It is extremely worrisome and scary, especially
to the police officers involved," Beck said.
Burned-out truck
The search for Dorner, a large man who once played
college football, stretched at one time to San Diego - where he was believed to
have tried to steal a boat on Wednesday night.
Two Los Angeles police officers assigned to a search
detail traded fire with him earlier on Thursday in the city of Corona. One
officer's head was grazed by a bullet, police said.
Two other officers were ambushed - one of them killed -
about 20 minutes later while sitting in their patrol car at a traffic light in
the adjacent town of Riverside, about 100km east of Los Angeles. The officer
who died was an 11-year Riverside police veteran. His partner was wounded but
was expected to fully recover, police said.
Dorner was presumed to be armed with multiple weapons,
including an assault rifle, Beck said, although his manifesto suggested he may
be more heavily armed.
"Do not deploy airships or gunships. SA-7 Manpads
will be waiting," Dorner wrote, in a reference to a Russian-made
shoulder-launched missile system.
"The violence of action will be high... I will
bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether
on or off duty.
"The attacks will stop when the department states
the truth about my innocence," read the document, a copy of which was
posted on Los Angeles television station KTLA's website but had been taken down
from Facebook.
CNN reported that Dorner had also mailed a DVD and letter
to on-air personality Anderson Cooper.
Dorner first came to public attention on Wednesday when
he was named as a suspect in the slayings of Quan and her fiancé. Quan's
father, retired LAPD Captain Randy Quan, had represented Dorner in hearings
that led to his firing for making false statements accusing another officer of
using excessive force.
"I never had the opportunity to have a family of my
own, I'm terminating yours," he wrote in a portion of his manifesto
addressed to the senior Quan.
