Ex-LA cop Christopher Jordan Dorner possibly dead in cabin blaze

Big Bear Lake, CA, United States (NewsBahn) – A cabin near Southern California’s Big Bear Lake believed to contain renegade ex-Los Angeles police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner was stormed by a SWAT team Tuesday afternoon.

Dorner barricaded himself inside a cabin, the sheriff’s statement said, after engaging in a fatal shootout with sheriff’s deputies.

The 85-year-old cabin was set ablaze, and was still burning strongly as of 5p PST, when police reportedly detonated smoke devices inside it. Dorner was believed to be inside the cabin and may be dead.

Los Angeles police spokesman Adam Smith pleaded with Dorner earlier in the day to stop the spree, which began last week, after he was named as the suspect in the shooting deaths of the daughter of his police union representative and her fiance.

Police also believe Dorner killed one police officer in Riverside and wounded two others on February 7 as he continued to elude authorities and reportedly continued his quest for revenge for what he believes was his unfair termination from the force.

Dorner led authorities on a trail from Orange County to the border of Mexico and from Los Angeles to Big Bear Lake.

The search, one of the largest in California history, centered on Big Bear Lake where Dorner’s burning truck was discovered last Thursday .

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called Dorner’s actions terrorist in nature.

“This is an act — and make no mistake about it — of domestic terrorism,” he told reporters Sunday. “This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered.”

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