Chris Dorner, a former officer of the LAPD, who sent the police force in California on a manhunt after he killed multiple officers, was confirmed dead in a burned cabin in the Big Bear Mountain region of California.
Dorner had vowed to kill police officers to avenge what he called his unfair termination. He was fired after accusing his training officer of kicking a suspect during a July 2007 arrest, a complaint the LAPD concluded was unfounded. He went through the proper steps in the justice system in an attempt to reclaim his name and his job in which he says was wrongly taken from him. After these attempts had no successes, he went with his next option, which was violence against the LAPD.
Dorner was first named a suspect in two shooting deaths on February 3: Monica Quan, the daughter of his police union representative, and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence. Police say he killed Crain and wounded Crain’s partner in an ambush on their patrol car February 7. They say he also wounded an LAPD officer who chased him in the suburban city of Corona, California. This was only the start of what Chris Dorner had in mind.
When his manifesto was discovered, which contained evidence of what he planned to do, this became a national story, which even created some supporters of Dorner. The manifesto said things like “I know I will be vilified by the LAPD and the media. Unfortunately, this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name”.
He then went on to make threats against the force unless his name was cleared and something was done about this. “I’ll be waiting for a PUBLIC response at a press conference. When the truth comes out, the killing stops”.
When the police got word of Dorner’s whereabouts due to finding his abandoned vehicle just outside of the snowy, below zero Big Bear Mountains, a full out search began for Dorner that lasted a few days, to no avail.
On Tuesday morning they received a call from two people who had been tied up in a cabin in the mountain region by a man with a similar description to Dorner. Police immediately went to this area and found Dorner in his vehicle. An exchange of gunfire occurred between Dorner and responding officers, two of the officers were shot; one officer would end up passing away from his injuries later that day. Dorner got away yet again.
They tracked him to a nearby cabin and brought multiple Police units around the area and shutdown all the surrounding roads and highways, so that nobody could get in or out. A few hours after surveying the cabin, it burst into flames. A body was found in the cabin, and it was identified as Chris Dorner’s.
Shadowed by that history, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced Saturday that the department would re-examine its proceedings against Dorner. The review is “not to appease a murderer,” but “to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all things we do,” he said.