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
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
