Update: LAPD says Dorner is dead

 

Los Angeles police say Christopher Dorner is dead, KTLA5 TV reports.

UPDATED 7:07: An AP source says a charred body was found in the rubble of a burned cabin in the Southern California mountains.

UPDATED 7 p.m.: The Los Angeles Police Department says Christopher Dorner is dead, according to television station KTLA.

==

BIG BEAR, Calif. — A cabin where a fugitive ex-Los Angeles police officer was believed to have barricaded himself was burning late Tuesday afternoon. A single shot was heard inside before the cabin was engulfed in flames, and no one emerged from the building, according to news reports.

A man believed to be Christopher Dorner, who is sought in three killings, had fled to the cabin after a furious gunbattle with police in the snow-covered mountains of Southern California, authorities said. Two officers were injured in the gunfight, and one of them later died.

A law enforcement source told the Los Angeles Times that police had broken down windows in the cabin, pumped in tear gas and blasted a loud speaker urging Dorner to surrender. When they got no response, police deployed a vehicle to rip down the walls of the cabin "one by one, like peeling an onion," the Times reported.

By the time they got to the last wall, authorities heard a single gunshot, the source said. Then flames began to spread through the structure, and gunshots, probably set off by the fire, were heard.

A body was not found. The police search will be focused in the basement area, the source told the Times.
As the cabin burned, Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, told reporters: "We are planning on a long night. It's an active crime scene. If this is Christopher Dorner, he is wanted for the murder of four people and the attempted murder of three others."

Officers have been swarming the snow-covered Big Bear region since Thursday, when they found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck. The former Navy reservist killed a former police captain's daughter and her fiance and a Riverside police officer, and injured two other officers, police said, promising to bring "warfare" to Los Angeles police and their families.

But, until Tuesday, authorities weren't sure whether Dorner was still near Big Bear or had fled, and thousands of officers were searching for him across three states and Mexico.

On Tuesday afternoon, deputies in the Big Bear area got a report of a stolen vehicle, the sheriff's office said, and the owners described the suspect as looking similar to Dorner.

When authorities found the vehicle, the suspect ran into the forest and barricaded himself inside a cabin. A short time later there was a gunfight and two officers were wounded. One later died; the other officer underwent surgery and was expected to survive.

"Hundreds of rounds" were exchanged during the 30-minute gunbattle, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Schools were locked down and local television stations aired the sounds of gunfire and shouting in a live broadcast from the Big Bear Lake ski resort.

“There are deputies everywhere on the ground," Cindy Bachman, a San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman, told the Times.
Candy Martin, who told the Times she owns the barricaded cabin, said she  turned on the news and saw the home surrounded by police.
Martin said she told police the cabin and adjoining buildings were supposed to be empty Monday and had no cable, phone or Internet service, according to the Times.

There were also no firearms inside, she said.

At a news conference, Los Angeles police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said he had this message for the suspect: "Enough is enough. It's time to turn yourself in. It's time to stop the bloodshed."

Prior to Tuesday's gunfight, it's believed that Dorner burglarized a different cabin and tied up a couple, an officer told The Associated Press.

The officer requested anonymity because the officer was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
One of the captives was able to get away and make a call. It's not clear if that's the same person who called police about the car theft.

Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Fish and Wildlife Department, told CNN that a game warden patrolling the area stopped the vehicle and exchanged gunfire with Dorner. Hughan said the warden was unharmed.

Dorner, a former Navy reservist, began his run from the law on Feb. 6 after authorities connected the slayings of a former police captain's daughter and her fiance with an angry manifesto they said Dorner posted on Facebook. He vowed to bring "warfare" to Los Angeles police and their family members, which led the department to assign officers to guard more than 50 families connected to his
so-called targets.

Within hours of the release of photos of the 6-foot, 270-pound man, Dorner allegedly unsuccessfully tried to steal a boat in San Diego to flee to Mexico and then ambushed police in Riverside County, shooting three and killing one.

Dorner's beef with the department dated back at least five years, when he was fired for filing a false report accusing his training officer of kicking a mentally ill suspect. Dorner, who is black, claimed in his manifesto that he was the subject of racism by the department and fired for doing the right thing.

He said he would get even with those who wronged him in an event to reclaim his good name.

"You're going to see what a whistleblower can do when you take everything from him especially his NAME!!!" he wrote. "You have awoken a sleeping giant."

Chief Charlie Beck, who initially dismissed the allegations in Dorner's rant, said he would reopen the investigation into his firing — not to appease the ex-officer, but to restore confidence in the black community, which long had a fractured relationship with police that has improved in recent years.

One of the targets listed in the manifesto was former LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, who represented Dorner before the disciplinary board. Dorner claimed he put the interests of the department above his.

The first victims were Quan's daughter, Monica Quan, 28, a college basketball coach, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, 27, who were shot multiple times in their car in a parking garage near their condo.

Dorner served in the Navy, earning a rifle marksman ribbon and pistol expert medal. He was assigned to a naval undersea warfare unit and various aviation training units, according to military records. He took leave from the LAPD for a six-month deployment to Bahrain in 2006 and 2007.

The Associated Press contributed to this report