Accused killer’s military skills
A warden’s car was hit.
Dorner crashed his car, ran and then quickly carjacked a pick up truck.
Rick Heltebrake, a camp ranger, said he was driving in the area when he saw the crashed purple car — and then something terrifying.
“Here comes this guy with a big gun and I knew who it was right away,” Heltebrake told CNN affiliate KTLA. “He just came out of the snow at me with his gun at my head. He said, ‘I don’t want to hurt you. Just get out of the car and start walking.'”
Heltebrake said he was allowed to get his dog out of the truck before he walked away with his hands up.
“Not more than 10 seconds later, I heard a loud round of gunfire,” Heltebrake said. “Ten to 20 rounds maybe. I found out later what that was all about.”
The fire
Dorner fled to a nearby cabin and got into another shootout with San Bernadino County deputies, killing one and wounding another.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Tuesday the other deputy was in surgery “but he should be fine,”
The cabin caught fire after police tossed smoke devices inside, a law enforcement source told CNN.
The intense fire burned for hours as authorities waited at a distance.
Despite the enormity of the blaze, authorities were hesitant to officially say they had stopped Dorner.
“No body has been pulled out,” LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said at a news conference Tuesday night. “No reports of a body being ID’d are true.”
Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the lead agency in the case — the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department — echoed the words, saying at a separate news conference that authorities believe whoever was in the cabin never left.
“They believe that there is a body in there, but it is not safe to go inside,” she told reporters.
Finally, late Tuesday night, sheriff’s investigators said they found charred human remains within the ashes of the torched cabin.
The department said it will work to identify the remains — but it could take a while.
The security
Clues to the targets of the violence were mentioned in Dorner’s fiery manifesto that was posted online. Authorities say Dorner began making good on his threats on February 3 when he allegedly killed Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence in an Irvine parking lot, south of Los Angeles.
According to the manifesto, Randal Quan, Monica Quan’s father, bungled Dorner’s LAPD termination appeal.
Randal Quan represented Dorner during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his firing. The officer was among dozens named in the manifesto.
On February 7, Dorner allegedly opened fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburban city of Corona.
Roughly 20 minutes later, Dorner allegedly fired on two officers in the nearby city of Riverside, killing Officer Michael Crain and wounding another.
Since then, the LAPD has provided security and surveillance details for more than 50 police officers and their families — many of whom were named in the manifesto.
Police said Tuesday night they would continue to protect the people Dorner said he would target until it was confirmed that he died in the cabin.
In the manifesto Dorner wrote about death multiple times. Not just the death of his targets but of his own.
“Self Preservation is no longer important to me,” the manifesto said at one point. “I do not fear death as I died long ago.”
CNN’s Miguel Marquez reported from near Big Bear Lake and Lateef Mungin wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Paul Vercammen, Stan Wilson, Casey Wian, Kathleen Johnston, Alan Duke, Matt Smith, Chelsea J. Carter, Michael Martinez and Holly Yan also contributed to this report.
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