Last night the manhunt for Christopher Dorner, the ex-LAPD officer hellbent on killing any LAPD officer and their family, is believed to have ended in a finale suitable for an action film. But it wasn’t a movie. Dorner’s rampage resulted in four people dead, five people injured and all of the Los Angeles area on edge.
Authorities decked out in full SWAT gear tracked Dorner in the Big Bear area, a ski resort town 80 miles east of LA, and eventually caught up with him. We know very little about what happened because authorities have revealed very few details about the incident as it is currently under investigation.
According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, deputies working the Big Bear area search for Dorner responded to a reported stolen vehicle by a suspect who looked like Dorner at around 12:20 pm. Shortly after they tracked the suspect down, who fled into the woods and barricaded himself inside a cabin.
Deputies surrounded the building and a gun fight ensued. CBS reported that Dorner opened fire from the cabin with a .50-caliber rifle, which he said he had in what’s being called his manifesto. Two deputies were hit. One died later and the other underwent surgery and will survive his wounds.
With Dorner inside the building authorities began lobbing tear gas into the building. At some point the cabin caught fire and as the structure was being swallowed by flames a single gunshot could be heard. There are conflicting reports as to how the cabin caught fire, but it was on fire nonetheless.
UPDATE: The fire was started after authorities launched pyrotechnic tear-gas canisters into the building, the Associated Press confirmed Feb. 14.
There have been reports that he attempted to escape once, but retreated back inside the building.
This morning the Associated Press reported that the Sheriff’s department said they found charred body inside the building, have brought it to the county coroner and are waiting for positive identification.
The LAPD has said that until the body is identified security units will still be in place protecting those identified as targets in Dorner’s manifest.
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