Law Enforcement on High Alert as Search for Dorner Continues

Updated at 2:05 p.m. Saturday

A former Los Angeles police officer hiding after three murders abandoned his truck when its axle broke, leading to a door-to-door search at Big Bear that entered its third day Saturday, two TV networks reported.

CNN reported that police believe Dorner may have as many as 30 weapons with him now. Other weapons were burned inside the truck as it was set on fire at about 8:20 a.m. Thursday.

CBS and CNN both quoted inside sources, and reported that an arsenal of weaponry and survival gear was found inside the burned-out pickup truck that Christopher Jordan Dorner apparently torched near the Big Bear Ski Area on Thursday morning.

At San Ysidro early Saturday, only two traffic lanes were open on southbound Interstate 5 at the Mexican border. Federal agents would not confirm that a dragnet was in effect, but officers wearing body armor and cradling rifles were photographed watching traffic heading through the unusual two-lane bottleneck at the Mexican border.

Law enforcement officers in San Diego County and across the Southwest remained on heightened alert for a third consecutive day Saturday. But police and the sheriff’s office reported no new possible sightings of Dorner, 33, who was fired by the Los Angeles Police Department five years ago.

In Los Angeles, police Chief Charlie Beck refused to make any comments as he attended a City Hall prayer breakfast.

Both the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff’s
Department were maintaining regular staffing levels as authorities in the Big Bear area resumed their search.

Dorner, a former Navy officer, had been staying at the Navy Base Point Loma and had tried to steal a boat during his crime spree, police believe.

Dorner vowed online Monday to kill named and unnamed LAPD officers and their families to avenge what he described as a campaign of unfair treatment that cost him his career. Dorner also allegedly threatened to target officers from other agencies if they tried to halt his vendetta.

The former Navy reservist suspected in the slayings of 28-year-old Monica Quan and her finance, 27-year-old Keith Lawrence, who were found shot to death Sunday night in a parked car in Irvine, and the ambush killing of a Riverside police officer four days later.

Quan was the daughter of a now-retired LAPD captain who represented Dorner at the Board of Rights hearing that led to his firing, and the killings were carried out in an act of revenge outlined in the lengthy manifesto, which blames Quan’s father for losing his job.
“We’re at regular staffing at this point, but we have other special units that are monitoring what’s going on and if things come up, they’ll be able to respond, but there's nothing at this point because we don’t have any information about him bring in this area,” said sheriff’s Lt. Scott Amos.

San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick said SDPD personnel were being updated with any new information that came up in the investigation into what he
said was “a dangerous individual.”

On Friday, law enforcement personnel across San Diego County investigated numerous unfounded reports of Dorner sightings.

Law enforcement agencies throughout San Diego County went on high alert Thursday after Dorner’s LAPD badge and identification were found near Lindbergh Field and a possible sighting of the suspect was reported at Navy Gateway Inn and Suites, where he had stayed on Tuesday. The hotel went into lockdown status for several hours amid the manhunt.

By mid-afternoon Friday, the search had moved onto San Bernardino County after Dorner’s pickup truck was found burning just off a forest road in Big
Bear.

All the areas where someone could have walked away from the truck were being searched, Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

Anyone spotting Dorner, whose last known address is in La Palma, should consider him armed and extremely dangerous and should not approach or try contacting him but instead call 911 immediately, police said. A tip line has been established and can be reached at (949) 724-7192.

-City News Service