Tag Archives: Big Bear Lake

Rogue ex-cop's victim makes 1st public appearance

A Riverside police officer nearly killed in an ambush by rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner made his first public appearance since the shooting, at an emotional dinner where he was greeted warmly by friends and admirers and shared a table with the wife of his late training officer.

Officer Andrew Tachias was sitting in his patrol car with Officer Michael Crain on Feb. 7 when Dorner pulled alongside them at a stoplight and opened fire.

Crain was killed. Tachias, who is still recovering, was shot eight times.

“I think he’s like all of us. It’s ups and downs,” Crain’s widow, Regina, said of Tachias. “One minute you’re fine, and the next you are in a hole.”

She added the dinner was the first time she and Tachias, 27, had met.

The officer, whose wounded hands were encased in protective coverings, has said he wants to return to work.

“I’m absolutely speechless for him to be back in this environment,” said Officer Scott Levesque, who was among those at the event at Riverside’s Original Roadhouse Grill.

The dinner capped a daylong fundraiser for the families of Tachias and Crain. It drew so many people that at one point, the restaurant ran out of silverware, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported (http://bit.ly/X4bhPe).

Tachias, dressed in a gray and black striped hoodie and sporting a beard, was greeted with hugs when he arrived at about 8 p.m. and took a table with Crain’s widow.

“To be close to the person who was with him last is comforting to me,” Regina Crain said.

Crain’s father also attended the event, along with Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz and Lt. Larry Gonzalez, the watch commander on duty when Crain and Tachias were attacked.

Dorner went on a rampage after he was fired by the Los Angeles Police Department for filing a false report.

He killed four people and wounded Tachias before committing suicide Feb. 12 after he was cornered in a mountain cabin near Big Bear Lake.

Authorities surrounded the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Chris Dorner supporters rally in front of LAPD headquarters

Dozens of protesters rallied outside Los Angeles police headquarters Saturday in support of Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD officer and suspected killer of four who died after a shootout and fire this week at a mountain cabin following one of the biggest manhunts in recent memory.

Protesters told the Los Angeles Times they didn’t support Dorner’s deadly methods, but objected to police corruption and brutality, and believed Dorner’s claims of racism and unfair treatment by the department. Many said they were angered by the conduct of the manhunt that led to Dorner’s death and injuries to innocent bystanders who were mistaken for him.

Michael Nam, 30, who held a sign with a flaming tombstone and the inscription “RIP Habeas Corpus,” said it was “pretty obvious” police had no intention of bringing Dorner in alive.

“They were the judge, the jury and the executioner,” Nam said. “As an American citizen, you have the right to a trial and due process by law.”

During the hunt for Dorner, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called for Dorner’s surrender and said he didn’t want to see the suspect or anyone else injured.

Dorner was already believed to have killed three people when he was cornered Tuesday at the cabin near Big Bear Lake, and during the standoff shot and killed a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.

Only after calls for surrender and use of milder tear gas did deputies launch pyrotechnic gas canisters into the cabin, and the subsequent fire was not intentional, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Dorner died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the end of the standoff, sheriff’s officials said.

The 33-year-old has already inspired a burgeoning subculture of followers. While most don’t condone killing, they see him as an outlaw hero who raged against powerful forces of authority, and some even question whether he really died.

Tributes include a ballad titled “El Matapolicias,” or “The Police Killer,” penned by a Mexican crooner with lyrics paying homage to Dorner, and a YouTube clip showing excerpts from a video game titled “Christopher Dorner‘s Last Stand Survival Game” whose opening frame declares him “A True American Hero.”

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Dorner was hiding in nearby condo during manhunt

Fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner hid in a mountain condominium as a door-to-door manhunt took place outside and, after he finally made his break, apparently killed himself with a gunshot to the head amid a fiery battle with police.

Dorner is believed to have entered the condo through an unlocked door sometime Feb. 7, soon after he arrived in the resort area of Big Bear Lake after killing three people. He locked the door and hunkered down for six days until the condo’s owners came to clean it, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Friday.

Deputies knocked on the door that first night but moved on when they found it locked and with no sign of a break-in, McMahon said.

“Our deputy knocked on that door and did not get an answer, and in hindsight it’s probably a good thing that he did not answer based on his actions before and after that event,” the sheriff said of Dorner.

When the owners arrived, he tied them up and fled in their car, leading to a chase, a shootout that killed a sheriff’s deputy and, ultimately, Dorner’s death in a remote cabin where he barricaded himself for a last stand.

Police initially weren’t sure if Dorner was killed by one of their bullets or by a fire sparked when they launched incendiary tear gas inside. Now they believe he died by his own hand as the cabin was going up in flames.

“When about a quarter of the cabin was on fire, we heard a distinct single gunshot come from inside the house which was a much different-sounding shot than what he’d been shooting at us,” sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Lacy said.

Dorner was equipped with an arsenal of weapons, including assault rifles with flash suppressors that masked the sound of gunfire and the location it was coming from as he pelted the first two deputies to arrive at the cabin, killing Det. Jeremiah MacKay.

“Our officers had not even pulled their guns out at that point and were not prepared to engage anybody and they were ambushed,” McMahon said.

The next five responding deputies got into a fierce firefight with bullets whizzing through trees. They deployed smoke bombs to block Dorner’s view so they could pull McKay’s wounded partner to safety as other …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Charred remains found in cabin positively ID'd as Christopher Dorner, police report

Charred remains found in a burned out California cabin have been positively identified as that of fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said the remains were identified through dental examination in the autopsy. Authorities said other personal effects were found in the cabin, including Dorner’s license.

Miller did not give a cause of death.

The search for Dorner began last week after authorities said he had launched a deadly revenge campaign against the Los Angeles Police Department for his firing, warning that he would bring “warfare” to LAPD officers and their families.

The manhunt brought police to Big Bear Lake, 80 miles east of Los Angeles, where they found Dorner’s burned-out pickup truck abandoned. His footprints disappeared on frozen soil and hundreds of officers who searched the area and checked out each building failed to find him.

Five days later, but just a stone’s throw from a command post authorities had set up in the massive manhunt, Karen and Jim Reynolds said they came face to face with Dorner inside their cabin-style condo.

The couple said Dorner bound them and put pillowcases on their heads. At one point, he explained that he had been there for days.

“He said `I don’t have a problem with you, so I’m not going to hurt you,”‘ Jim Reynolds said. “I didn’t believe him; I thought he was going to kill us.”

Police have not commented on the Reynolds’ account, but it renews questions about the thoroughness of a search for a man who authorities declared was armed and extremely dangerous as they hunted him across the Southwest and Mexico.

“They said they went door-to-door but then he’s right there under their noses. Makes you wonder if the police even knew what they were doing,” resident Shannon Schroepfer said. “He was probably sitting there laughing at them the whole time.”

The notion of him holed up just across the street from the command post was shocking to many, but not totally surprising to some experts familiar with the complications of such a manhunt.

“Chilling. That’s the only word I could use for that,” said Ed Tatosian, a retired SWAT commander for the Sacramento Police Department. “It’s not an unfathomable oversight. We’re human. It happens. It’s chilling (that) it does happen.”

Law enforcement officers, who had gathered outside daily for briefings, were stunned by the revelation. One official later looking on Google Earth exclaimed that he’d parked right across the street from the Reynolds’ cabin each day.

The Reynolds said Dorner was upstairs in the rental unit Tuesday when they arrived to ready it for vacationers. Dorner, who at the time was being sought for three killings, confronted the Reynolds with a drawn gun, “jumped out and hollered `stay calm,”‘ Jim Reynolds said during a Wednesday night news conference.

His wife screamed and ran downstairs but Dorner caught her, Reynolds said. The couple said they were taken to a bedroom where he ordered them to lie on a bed and then on the floor. Dorner bound …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Christopher Dorner's Manifesto Gets The 'Rap Genius' Decoding Treatment

By Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff

The pursuit of Christopher Dorner, 33, a former LAPD officer who was the focus of a manhunt after a series of shootings in Southern California, came to a dramatic end on Tuesday. After a shoot-out caught on camera by CBS, the cabin in Big Bear Lake, California, where Dorner was holed up, began to burn. It’s believed that the body found inside is Dorner’s. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Police say no body has yet been found after cabin stronghold of fugitive ex-cop goes up in flames

Los Angeles authorities say no body has yet been recovered in the search for a fugitive ex-cop after the rural California cabin he had been holed up in went up in flames, saying officers had not yet began searching the charred structure.

LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said in a press conference late Tuesday that widely circulated reports a body had been found and was believed to be Christopher Jordan Dorner were false.

Until Mr. Dorner has been identified as deceased or in cuffs in jail we will continue as if he is out there,” Smith said.

Dorner, who vowed not to be taken alive, had been surrounded inside the cabin since early Tuesday afternoon. It was not clear who set the fire in the Big Bear community where Dorner apparently has been hiding since sometime last week.

It was a stunning end to a saga that gripped the country, and had the nation’s third-largest police department on tenterhooks for a week. Dorner, a former Navy man and highly trained marksman, had vowed revenge on the department he believed had wronged him – designating specific targets for death.As flames devoured the cabin, police stood by, confident that there was no escape for Dorner, and no way he could survive the blaze – assuming he had not already taken his own life. One law enforcement source told The Associated Press a single shot was heard inside the cabin before the fire broke out.

San Bernardino Sheriff Spokesperson Cindy Bachman told reporters that they will not enter the structure until it is safe to do so.

Law enforcement sources said sometime within the last few days, Dorner broke into an cabin off Route 38, on the mountain resort area where days ago his truck was found burning. Two women were held there until Tuesday morning, when Dorner left in a white pickup believed to belong to one of the women, who he left bound inside. One managed to escape and call authorities around 12:50 p.m. local time.

Sometime later, fish and wildlife officers spotted the stolen pickup, which they were looking for, and tried to stop it near Big Bear Lake, authorities said. The driver, believed to have been Dorner, fled on foot, exchanging gunfire, sources told Fox News. Hours later, police had Dorner cornered in another cabin, exchanging gunfire with the suspect. It was there that his rampage would end.

As the forces surrounding the cabin mounted, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department shut down Highway 38 to create a choke point, sources told Fox News. Four area schools were on lockdown.

The police also asked the media to stop tweeting events in real time and showing live aerial shots of the cabin, theorizing Dorner could be monitoring events on television. A CBS correspondent briefly found himself in the crossfire as he broadcasted from the event, before police ordered him out of the danger zone.

The shootout came after a day of searching and speculation, with authorities continuing their door-to-door search in the rural Southern California community, even as sources guessed Dorner, 33, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Fugitive ex-cop reportedly exchanges fire with authorities

The fugitive ex-LAPD cop suspected of killing three and declaring war on the force exchanged gunfire with authorities in the San Bernardino Mountains, law enforcement sources said.

A police source told The Associated Press Christopher Dorner burglarized a cabin on the mountain resort area where days ago Dorner’s truck was found burning. Two people were bound inside the cabin, but one managed to escape and call authorities around 12:50 p.m. local time.

Police, who had been swarming Big Bear Lake since the weekend, responded and spotted and chased a suspect believed to be Dorner in a stolen car, exchanging gunfire, a federal law enforcement source told Fox News.

San Bernardino police were on the scene the county Sheriff’s Department shut down Highway 38 to create a choke point, sources told Fox News. It was unclear if Dorner was in custody.

The shootout came after a day of searching and speculation, with authorities continuing their door-to-door search at Big Bear Lake, even as sources guessed Dorner may have made it over the border and into Mexico.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

$1 million reward offered for ex-cop as latest probe of possible sighting proves fruitless

Los Angeles authorities are offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of a fugitive ex-cop wanted in the murders of three people, as the latest investigation into a possible sighting of the suspect yielded no clues.

Police evacuated a Los Angeles home improvement store Sunday after a caller said they had seen someone resembling 33-year-old Christopher Dorner.

Authorities searched for hours but found no evidence that Dorner was there or had been there, Los Angeles police spokesman Gus Villanueva said.

Several tips came in a few hours afterLos Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the reward at a news conference alongside police chiefs and mayors from Irvine and Riverside.

“This search is not a matter of if, but a matter of when,” he said. “I want Chris Dorner to know that.”

Villaraigosa called Dorner’s actions a “reign of terror,” but expressed confidence that he would be brought to justice.

“His actions cannot go unanswered,” Los Angeles Police Chief Beck said.

Meanwhile, authorities said camping gear was found along with weapons inside Dorner’s burned-out pickup truck. The vehicle found Thursday in the ski resort town of Big Bear Lake was so charred that investigators couldn’t be more specific about the nature of its contents, Lopez said.

Also Sunday, police investigated a taunting phone call that may have been made by Dorner to the father of the woman they believe he killed last week. Two law enforcement officers who requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation told The Associated Press they are trying to determine if the call days after the killing was made by the 33-year-old fugitive or a man posing as him.

SWAT teams with air support and bloodhounds fanned out for the fourth day to search for Dorner, who has vowed revenge against several former LAPD colleagues whom he blames for ending his career.

The effort was significantly scaled back as the weekend went on, with 25 officers and a single helicopter looking for clues in the forest and going door-to-door at some 600 cabins in the San Bernardino mountains, about 80 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

On Saturday, Chief Beck said officials would re-examine the allegations by Dorner that his law enforcement career was undone by racist colleagues. While he promised to hear out Dorner if he surrenders, Beck stressed that he was ordering a review of his 2007 case because he takes the allegation of racism in his department seriously.

“I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all the things we do,” the chief said in a statement.

Authorities suspect Dorner in a series of attacks in Southern California over the past week that have left three people dead. The killings and threats that Dorner allegedly made in an online rant have led police to provide protection to 50 families, Beck said.

A captain who was named a target in the manifesto posted on Facebook told the Orange County Register he has not stepped outside his house since he learned …read more
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Manhunt for Ex-Cop Yields Little Near Resort

By John Johnson Authorities may have found Christopher Dorner‘s burned-out truck near Big Bear Lake in California, but the former cop and suspected murderer remains at large this morning, reports the Los Angeles Times . A storm has brought heavy snow and bitter-cold temperatures to the area, which is both a help and a… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Thousands of Cops Look for Dorner in 3 States

By Mark Russell With the manhunt in Big Bear Lake for ex-cop Christopher Dorner coming up empty so far, authorities are admitting they have no idea where Dorner is, reports Fox News . Thousands of police officers are now involved in the hunt, in California, Nevada, Arizona, and northern Mexico. “He could be anywhere… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

LAPD Going Door-to-Door as Manhunt Continues

By Matt Cantor The California resort town of Big Bear Lake has had a rough night. Los Angeles police officers have visited more than half the area’s homes as they search for ex-cop Christopher Dorner ; they’re telling locals not to answer their doors unless they’re sure who’s calling, ABC News reports. Meanwhile, surveillance… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Search covers Ca. for ex-cop believed killer of 3

A police officer and a pair of soon-to-be newlyweds were dead.

Another officer, riddled with bullets, was in intensive care.

Two more police were shot at but got away, one of them grazed by gunfire. Two innocent and uninvolved women were shot by police who feared a dangerous suspect.

And despite a massive manhunt that touched three states and Mexico, the heavily armed ex-Los Angeles police officer believed behind the rampage, who promised in his rambling writings to bring “warfare” to police and their families, remained free.

“We don’t know what he’s going to do,” said Cindy Bachman, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, one of many law enforcement agencies whose primary purpose Thursday became finding 33-year-old Christopher Dorner. “We know what he’s capable of doing. And we need to find him.”

As darkness fell, the search that had extended across California from the U.S.-Mexico border through Nevada, from suburban street to military bases, had narrowed in on a cold, snowy mountain 80 miles east of Los Angeles where Dorner’s burned truck was found.

But tracks that surrounded the truck and hours of door-to-door searching around Bear Mountain Ski Resort had turned up nothing, and authorities conceded that the whereabouts of Dorner, also a former Naval reservist and onetime college running back, remained a mystery.

“He could be anywhere at this point,” said San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon, who had 125 deputies and police officers and two helicopters searching the community of Big Bear Lake, where a snowstorm and plunging temperatures were expected overnight.

The saga began Sunday night, when Monica Quan and her fiancĂ©, Keith Lawrence, were found shot in their car at a parking structure at their condominium in Irvine. Quan, 28, was an assistant women’s basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. The couple had no known enemies and there was no evidence of robbery.

The following morning in National City, Calif. near San Diego, some of Dorner’s belongings, including police equipment and paperwork with names related to the LAPD, were found in a trash bin.

The LAPD was notified of the find, and two days later informed Irvine police of an angry manifesto written by a former officer and posted on Facebook.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News