BIG BEAR LAKE,
Calif. (AP) -- The manhunt for a former Los Angeles police officer
suspected of going on a killing spree converged Tuesday on a mountain
cabin where authorities believe he barricaded himself inside, engaged in
a shootout that killed a deputy and then never emerged as the home went
up in flames.
A single gunshot was heard from
within. San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said
Tuesday night that a charred body was found inside the burned-out cabin.
Investigators
will use forensic tests to determine if the body belongs to Christopher
Dorner. If the results are positive, the search for the most wanted man
in America over the last week will have ended the way he had expected -
death, with the police pursuing him. He is believed to have killed at
least four people.
Thousands of officers had
been on the hunt for the former Navy reservist since police said he
launched a campaign to exact revenge against the Los Angeles Police
Department for his firing. They say he threatened to bring "warfare" to
officers and their families, spreading fear and setting off a search for
him across the Southwest and Mexico.
"Enough
is enough. It's time for you to turn yourself in. It's time to stop the
bloodshed," LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said at a news conference held
outside police headquarters in Los Angeles, a starkly different
atmosphere than last week when Dorner was on the loose and officials
briefed the news media under heavy security in an underground hallway.
A
short time after Smith spoke Tuesday, smoke began to rise from the
cabin in the snow-covered woods near Big Bear Lake, a resort town about
80 miles east of Los Angeles. Flames then engulfed the building - images
that were broadcast on live television around the world. TV helicopters
showed the fire burning freely with no apparent effort to extinguish
it.
"We have reason to believe that it is
him," said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman,
adding that she didn't know how the fire started. She noted there was
gunfire between the person in the cabin and officers around the home
before the blaze began.
Earlier, there were
conflicting reports about whether a body had been found inside shortly
after the fire, with both the Los Angeles and San Bernardino authorities
disputing the find in separate news conferences. But an official later
told the AP a body had been seen in the rubble. The official requested
anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
Until
Tuesday, authorities didn't know whether Dorner was still near Big Bear
Lake, where they found his burned-out pickup last week.
It's believed that Dorner broke into a house near where his truck was found and tied two people up.
About
mid-day Tuesday, wardens from the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife spotted a purple Nissan car that had been reported stolen,
department spokesman Lt. Patrick Foy said. The wardens recognized the
driver as someone matching Dorner's description.
They
pursued the driver and briefly lost him when he turned onto a side
road. Three other wardens in two vehicles turned onto the road a short
time later, and were searching for the car when they saw a white pickup
truck driving toward them erratically and at a high rate of speed.
Wardens got a close look at the driver and realized it was Dorner, who rolled down his window and opened fire, Foy said.
The
wildlife vehicle was hit numerous times, and one of the wardens was
able to get out and fire at the driver, who escaped on foot after
crashing his truck.
After holing up in the
cabin, there was a second gunbattle with San Bernardino County deputies,
two of whom were shot. One died and the other was expected to live
after undergoing surgery.
"We're heartbroken,"
Big Bear Lake Mayor Jay Obernolte said of the deputy's death and the
wounding of his colleague. "Words can't express how grateful we are for
the sacrifice those men have made in defense of the community, and our
thoughts and prayers are with them and their families."
The
man believed to be Dorner never came out of the cabin, and a single
shot was heard inside before the cabin was engulfed in flames, a law
enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Earlier,
a SWAT team surrounded the cabin and used an armored vehicle to break
out the cabin windows, the official said. The officers then pumped a gas
into the cabin and blasted a message over a loudspeaker: "Surrender or
come out."
The armored vehicle then tore down each of the cabin's four walls, like peeling back the layers of an onion, the official said.
Police
say Dorner began his run on Feb. 6 after they connected the slayings of
a former police captain's daughter and her fiance with an angry
Facebook rant they said he posted. Threats against the LAPD led
officials to assign officers to protect officers and their families.
Within
hours of the release of photos of the 6-foot, 270-pounder described as
armed and "extremely dangerous," police say, Dorner unsuccessfully tried
to steal a boat in San Diego to flee to Mexico and opened fire on two
patrol cars in Riverside County, shooting three officers and killing
one.
Jumpy officers guarding one of the
targets named in the rant shot and injured two women delivering
newspapers Thursday in Torrance because they mistook their pickup truck
for Dorner's.
Police found weapons and camping
gear inside the charred truck in Big Bear. Helicopters using
heat-seeking technology searched the forest from above while scores of
officers, some using bloodhounds, scoured the ground and checked
hundreds of vacation cabins - many vacant this time of year - in the
area.
A snowstorm hindered the search and may
have helped cover his tracks, though authorities were hopeful he would
leave fresh footprints if hiding in the wilderness.
Dorner's
anger 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 the rant 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 as part of his plan to reclaim his good name.
"You're
going to see what a whistleblower can do when you take everything from
him especially his NAME!!!" the rant said. "You have awoken a sleeping
giant."
Chief Charlie Beck, who initially
dismissed the allegations in the rant, said he reopened 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. They were shot
multiple times in their car in a parking garage near their Orange County
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.
He left the service on Feb. 1.
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
