February 8, 2013
Updated 7:10 am 2/18/13
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- With a hot cover photo of model Kate Upton on this year’s Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, the magazine created a big buzz about photo shoots on all seven continents.
But this year, beautiful models in barely there bikinis are in the middle of a controversy brewing over some photos and video the magazine posted online that did not make it into the magazine — particularly photos taken in Africa and China.
Some people are calling them insensitive.
“For me, the African picture was probably the most offensive because it played on some of the most old and stereotypical images, it showed the African as primitive as almost uncivilized,” said Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at Columbia University.
On the website Jezebel, Deputy Editor Dodai Stewart is also critical of the photos.
“Using people of color as background or extras is a popular fashion trope … but although it’s prevalent, it’s very distasteful … people are not props,” Stewart wrote.
One of the models, Emily Didonato, talks about her shoot on SI’s website:
“It was such a cool experience to shoot with someone like that, something completely different from anything I’ve ever seen or someone I’ve met in my life,” she said.
In response to the controversy, Sports Illustrated gave ABC News the following statement:
“Since its inception, the swimsuit issue has been a showcase for beautiful women and exotic locations. This year’s edition went to all seven continents, something that no other publication has done, to present the natural beauty of each setting and its people. We apologize to anyone who has taken exception to the way their culture was represented.”
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Updated 6:47pm 2/17/13
Federal and local law enforcement in Los Angeles are seeking information from the public that leads to the identity of an unidentified suspect wanted for a series of bank robberies. The suspect was given the moniker of “Purse Packing Bandit” to assist law enforcement responding to the banks with information about active bank robbery suspects. Bandit names are generated based on witness descriptions of the appearance or behavior of a suspect during the initial robberies to which they’re linked.
PURSE PACKING BANDIT
During the robberies linked to the Purse Packing Bandit, the suspect approaches the victim bank teller carrying a purse in which she advises the teller there is a gun.
The Purse Packing Bandit passes a note to the victim teller demanding specific amounts of cash. The Purse Packing Bandit is seen in bank surveillance photos with various hairstyles, possibly wigs, and, in some cases, sunglasses.
The Purse Packing Bandit is described as a black female, 5’02” to 5’04,” 120 to 140 lbs. and 35 to 45 years of age, and has been linked to the following robberies:
10/20/12 Citibank 8900 Santa Monica Blvd. West Hollywood
11/14/12 Chase Bank 310 N. Fairfax Blvd. Los Angeles
12/20/12 Bank of America 8025 Santa Monica Blvd. West Hollywood
12/24/12 Chase Bank 3738 Crenshaw Blvd. Los Angeles
Anyone with information about the identity or whereabouts of either suspect is urged to contact their nearest FBI office or dial 911. Or if you wish to remain Anonymous, call “LA Crime Stoppers” by dialing 800-222-TIPS (8477), texting the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637), or using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org
The FBI is conducting these investigations jointly with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department.
More News:
Updated 7:58 am 2/17/13
(NEW YORK) -- It’s a forum that isn’t known for making news – so Dr. Ben Carson says the buzz created by his speech at last week’s National Prayer Breakfast, including a Wall Street Journal staff editorial with the headline “Ben Carson For President” – came as a surprise.
“I don’t think it was particularly political,” Carson, the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, told ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl during an interview for This Week. “You know, I’m a physician. I like to diagnose things. And, you know, I’ve diagnosed some pretty, pretty significant issues that I think a lot of people resonate with.”
With an audience that included President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Carson spoke out about political correctness, health care and taxes at the breakfast. In his roughly 23-minute address, Carson called for a private health care savings plan and a flat tax for all Americans. His address has since gone viral, racking up more than two million views on YouTube.
The speech isn’t Carson’s first foray into national politics. In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded the successful brain surgeon the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
On Sunday, Carson criticized some of President Obama’s policies but also called him a “very talented politician.”
“There are a number of policies that I don’t believe lead to the growth of our nation and don’t lead to the elevation of our nation,” Carson added. “I don’t want to sit here and say all of his policies are bad.”
He also offered his diagnosis for today’s political environment.
“What I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation, not people just casting aspersions at each other,” Carson said on This Week. “I mean, it’s unbelievable to me the way people act like third graders. And if somebody doesn’t agree with them, they’re this and they’re that and, you know — it comes from both sides. And it’s just so infantile.”
As for his own ambitions, Carson, 61, is retiring from practicing medicine this summer. But he told Jonathan Karl he’s not ruling out a future bid for political office.
“That’s not my intention,” he said. “But I always say, ‘I’ll leave that up to God.’”
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
Updated 7:52 am 2/17/13
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Unified School District says a judge has dismissed a sexual harassment suit against former Superintendent Ramon Cortines.
District spokesman Sean Rossall tells the Los Angeles Times that a judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by district real estate manager Scot Graham because it was filed too late. The judge did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit.
The suit stems from a 2010 sexual encounter at Cortines' Kern County ranch.
The 80-year-old Cortines, who retired in 2011, admitted to the meeting with the married Graham. He said he showed bad judgment but it was consensual.
Neither the Times nor The Associated Press could reach Graham for comment, but he said last month the established facts of the case "should be sickening to the community."
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
Recent Top Stories
Updated 7:10 pm 2/16/13
LOS ANGELES (AP/CNS/KABC) —Dozens of protesters rallied outside Los Angeles police headquarters in support of Christopher Dorner, the ex-LAPD officer and suspected killer of four who died after a shootout and fire this week at a mountain cabin.
Protesters told the Los Angeles Times at the Saturday rally that they did not support Dorner's deadly methods, but objected to police corruption and brutality, and believed Dorner's claims of racism and unfair treatment by the department that he said led to the rampage.
Somedemonstrators, calling themselves "We StandWith Christopher Dorner," gathered in front of Los Angeles Police Department's headquarters in Los Angeles today to decry the death of the fired
L.A. policeman as he faced arrest.
"We're protesting some of the police brutality -- not just LAPD, but allover the nation," said Lomita resident Vincent Namm, a former Marine. ``With
Chris Dorner, habeas corpus just got thrown out the window.''
``I'm a veteran myself,'' he told City News Service. ``It's like they(the police) were judge, jury and executioner. Of course, if the police are
those three things, we have something called a police state.
``They didn't seem like they were even interested in apprehending him,"
Hamm said.
Thirty-year-old protester Michael Nam held a sign with a flaming tombstone and the inscription "RIP Habeas Corpus." He and others said they were angered by the conduct of the manhunt that led to Dorner's death and injuries to innocent bystanders who were mistaken for him.
Updated 8:07 am 2/16/13
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say fugitive former cop Christopher Dorner died of a single gunshot wound to the head as authorities were pumping tear gas into a mountain cabin during a deadly gun battle with sheriff's deputies.
San Bernardino County sheriff's Capt. Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Friday that it appears the wound was self-inflicted.
Deputies said they heard one final gunshot from the cabin as it was going up in flames during Tuesday's gunbattle.
Before he died, Dorner killed one sheriff's deputy and wounded another during a fierce shootout.
Authorities initially were unsure whether Dorner killed himself, had been struck by a deputy's bullet or had died in a fire that engulfed the cabin during the shootout.
Out of the rubble of tragedy, a hero arises. Authorities are applauding a cab driver for helping two Riverside police officers who were shot by Christopher Dorner in an ambush.
Karam Kaoud stopped his taxi at a red light when a gunman pulled up next to a police car and opened fire on Feb. 7, killing Michael Crain and wounding Andrew Tachias.
Kaoud tells the Riverside Press-Enterprise (http://bit.ly/WNTjR6) he ran to the police car after the gunman believed to be Dorner sped off. He said Crain was unconscious and Tachias couldn't move, so the officer asked him to push the radio button so he could call for help.
An ambulance rushed to the scene and took Tachias to the hospital.
Police Chief Sergio Diaz says that any delay in getting help could have been detrimental for Tachias.
Updated 4:40 pm 2/15/13 Breaking: San Bernadino Sheriff's Dept confirms that Christopher Dorner died of a gunshot wound to the head.
SACRAMENTO , Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have honored a sheriff's deputy killed in a shootout with fugitive ex-Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner.
During legislative sessions Friday, two San Bernardino County lawmakers described 35-year-old Jeremiah MacKay as a hero who will be missed.
Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of Twin Peaks, which is near the Big Bear Lake community where the Dorner manhunt was focused, described MacKay as a happy and courageous man who was "always there to help anybody." Republican Sen. Bill Emmerson of Redlands called the detective "a dedicated public servant."
MacKay grew up in Lake Arrowhead, which also is near Big Bear, and served in the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department for 15 years. He was hit several times during Tuesday's shootout.
MacKay leaves behind a wife, 7-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
Updated 6:12 am 2/15/13
Updated 4:01 pm 2/14/13
The charred remains found in a burned-down cabin in Big Bear has been positiviely identified as that of fugitive ex-Cop Christopher Dorner. ABC Radio News reports that the Medical Examiner used dental records to make the official identification. Read the details by clicking here.
Updated 3:55pm 2/14/13
BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) — Karen and Jim Reynolds say they came face to face with fugitive Christopher Dorner, not on a snow-covered mountain trail, but inside their cabin-style condo.
During a 15-minute ordeal just a stone's throw from a command post authorities had set up in the massive manhunt for the ex-Los Angeles police officer, the couple said Dorner bound them and put pillowcases on their heads. At one point, he explained that he had been there for days.
"He said 'I don't have a problem with you, so I'm not going to hurt you,'" Jim Reynolds said. "I didn't believe him; I thought he was going to kill us."
Police have not commented on the Reynolds' account, but it renews questions about the thoroughness of a search for a man who authorities declared was armed and extremely dangerous as they hunted him across the Southwest and Mexico.
"They said they went door-to-door but then he's right there under their noses. Makes you wonder if the police even knew what they were doing," resident Shannon Schroepfer said. "He was probably sitting there laughing at them the whole time."
The search for Dorner began last week after authorities said he had launched a deadly revenge campaign against the Los Angeles Police Department for his firing, warning that he would bring "warfare" to LAPD officers and their families.
The manhunt brought police to Big Bear Lake, 80 miles east of Los Angeles, where they found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck abandoned. His footprints disappeared on frozen soil and hundreds of officers who searched the area and checked out each building failed to find him.
The notion of him holed up just across the street from the command post was shocking to many, but not totally surprising to some experts familiar with the complications of such a manhunt.
"Chilling. That's the only word I could use for that," said Ed Tatosian, a retired SWAT commander for the Sacramento Police Department. "It's not an unfathomable oversight. We're human. It happens. It's chilling (that) it does happen."
Law enforcement officers, who had gathered outside daily for briefings, were stunned by the revelation. One official later looking on Google Earth exclaimed that he'd parked right across the street from the Reynolds' cabin each day.
The Reynolds said Dorner was upstairs in the rental unit Tuesday when they arrived to ready it for vacationers. Dorner, who at the time was being sought for three killings, confronted the Reynolds with a drawn gun, "jumped out and hollered 'stay calm,'" Jim Reynolds said during a Wednesday night news conference.
His wife screamed and ran downstairs but Dorner caught her, Reynolds said. The couple said they were taken to a bedroom where he ordered them to lie on a bed and then on the floor. Dorner bound their arms and legs with plastic ties, gagged them with towels and covered their heads with pillowcases.
"I really thought it could be the end," Karen Reynolds said.
The couple believes Dorner had been staying in the cabin at least since Feb. 8, the day after his burned truck was found nearby. Dorner told them he had been watching them by day from inside the cabin as they did work outside. The couple, who live nearby, only entered the unit Tuesday. "He said we are very hard workers," Karen Reynolds said.
After he fled in their purple Nissan Rogue, she managed to call 911 from a cellphone on the coffee table. Police said Dorner later killed a fourth person, a sheriff's deputy, during a standoff, and died inside the burning cabin where he took cover during a blazing shootout.
While authorities have not corroborated the couple's account, it matched early reports from law enforcement officials that a couple had been tied up and their car stolen by a man resembling Dorner. Property records showed the Reynolds as the condo's owners.
As coroners work to confirm that the body found inside the cabin was Dorner, the San Bernardino County sheriff has refused to answer questions about how one of the largest manhunts in years could have missed him.
During the search, heavily armed deputies went door to door to search roughly 600 cabins for forced entry. Many of the cabins were boarded-up summer homes.
Authorities said officers looked for signs that someone had forcibly entered the buildings, or that heat was on inside in a cabin that otherwise looked uninhabited.
Helicopters had landed SWAT officers in a lot near the Reynolds' condo, and through the weekend they stood in plain view from the cabin, gearing up in helmets, bulletproof vests, with assault weapons at the ready.
According to the Reynolds, the cabin had cable TV, and a second-story view that would have allowed him to see choppers flying in and out.
Timothy Clemente, a retired FBI SWAT team leader who was part of the search for Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, said searchers had to work methodically. When there's a hot pursuit, they can run after a suspect into a building. But in a manhunt, the search has to slow down. "You can't just kick in every door," he said. Police have to have a reason to enter a building.
Officers would have been approaching each cabin, rock and tree with the prospect that Dorner was behind and waiting with a weapon that could penetrate bulletproof vests. In his manifesto posted online, Dorner, a former Navy reservist, said he had no fear of losing his life and would wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" and warned officers "you will now live the life of the prey."
Even peering through windows can be difficult because officers have to remove a hand from their weapons to shade their eyes. Experts said it is likely officers may have used binoculars to help examine homes from a distance, especially when dealing with a man who had already killed three people, including a police officer.
In many cases, officers didn't even knock on the doors, according to searchers and residents.
"If Chris Dorner's on the other side of the door, what would the response be?" Clemente said. "A .50 caliber round or .223 round straight through that door."
___
Abdollah reported from Los Angeles.
Updated 5:35 pm 2/13/13
Alex Stone, ABC Radio News reporting
DESPITE SOME CLAIMS THAT THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT INTENTIONALLY SET FIRE TO THE CABIN DORNER WAS BELIEVED TO BE IN... SHERIFF JOHN MCMAHON SAYS IT WAS NOT INTENTIONAL -- IT APPEARS IT WAS IGNITED BY TEAR GAS CANISTERS THAT WERE SHOT INSIDE.
MCMAHON SAYS: "PYROTECHNIC DOES GENERATE A LOT OF HEAT. WE INTRODUCED THOSE CANISTERS INTO THE RESIDENCE AND A FIRE ERUPTED."
ON SCANNER TRAFFIC DEPUTIES COULD BE HEARD TALKING ABOUT BURNERS. THE SHERIFF SAYS THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL THAT TYPE OF TEAR GAS CANISTER.
Updated 5:20 pm 2/13/13
LOS ANGELES (AP) — There was no question. The man standing before Rick Heltebrake on a rural mountain road was Christopher Dorner.
Clad in camouflage from head to toe and wearing a bulletproof vest packed with ammunition, the most wanted man in America over the last week was just a few feet away, having emerged from a grove of trees holding a large, assault-style rifle.
As teams of officers who had sought the fugitive ex-Los Angeles police officer since last week were closing in, Dorner pointed the gun at Heltebrake and ordered him to get out of his truck.
"I don't want to hurt you. Start walking and take your dog," Heltebrake recalled Dorner saying during the carjacking Tuesday.
The man, who wasn't lugging any gear, got into the truck and drove away. Heltebrake, with his 3-year-old Dalmatian Suni in tow, called police when he heard a volley of gunfire erupt soon after, and then hid behind a tree.
A short time later, police caught up with the man they believe was Dorner, surrounding a cabin in which he had taken refuge after crashing Heltebrake's truck 80 miles east of Los Angeles. A gunfight ensued in which one sheriff's deputy was killed and another wounded.
Then, as the gunfire ended, the cabin erupted in flames.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said Wednesday his deputies did not intentionally burn down the cabin. His deputies shot pyrotechnic tear gas into the cabin, and it erupted in flames, he said.
McMahon did not say directly that the tear gas started the blaze, and the cause of the fire remained unclear.
A charred body was found in the basement, along with a wallet and personal items, including a California driver's license with the name Christopher Dorner, an official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe.
McMahon said authorities have not positively identified the remains.
Recalling his encounter, Heltebrake said Wednesday that he wasn't panicked in his meeting with Dorner because he didn't feel the fugitive wanted to hurt him. "He wasn't wild-eyed, just almost professional," he said. "He was on a mission."
"It was clear I wasn't part of his agenda and there were other people down the road that were part of his agenda," he said.
Dorner, 33, had said in a rant that authorities believe he posted on Facebook last week that he expected to die, with the police chasing him, as he embarked on a campaign of revenge against the Los Angeles Police Department for firing him.
The apparent end came in the same mountain range where Dorner's trail went cold six days earlier, after his pickup truck — with guns and camping gear inside — was found abandoned and on fire near the ski resort town of Big Bear Lake.
His footprints led away from the truck and vanished on frozen soil.
Deputies searched door-to-door in the city of Big Bear Lake and then, in a blinding snowstorm, SWAT teams with bloodhounds and high-tech equipment in tow focused on scouring hundreds of vacant cabins in the forest outside of town.
Authorities for the most part looked at cabins boarded up for the winter, said Dan Sforza, assistant chief of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and often didn't enter occupied homes where nothing appeared amiss.
That could have been how Dorner went overlooked in a cabin just across the street from a police command post set up to capture him. It wasn't immediately known how he got into the cabin or how long he'd been there.
He as there Tuesday, however, when two women arrived to clean it, said Lt. Patrick Foy of the state fish and wildlife department.
With three killings behind him and law enforcement still on the hunt, Dorner didn't shoot them. Instead, he tied up the women and took their purple Nissan as he fled. Sparing the housekeepers ultimately would start the chain of events that would lead to his undoing.
One of the women broke free and called 911, Foy said, and the chase was on.
Two game wardens quickly spotted the car on a meandering road along a scenic lake, and deputies planned to throw down spike strips to puncture the vehicle's tires, authorities said.
The driver of the vehicle seems to anticipate the move, pulling close behind the school buses to give officers no space to drop the strips, Foy said. Dorner had warned — even boasted — in the rant that he knew their tactics and techniques as well as the officers pursuing him.
The purple Nissan then disappeared.
Heltebrake, a ranger who takes care of a Boy Scout camp nearby, said he just had lunch and was checking the perimeter of the camp for anything out of the ordinary when he saw someone emerge from the trees, and instantly recognized Dorner as the man on the news.
Officers trying to find the fugitive quickly realized he must have turned onto a side road, but for a few minutes nobody involved in the chase knew he had changed vehicles.
That was when officers saw Heltebrake's truck, and Dorner appeared to be behind the wheel. And then the shooting started.
At one point, an officer emptied a high-powered semiautomatic rifle into the truck, but Foy said he doubts the driver was hit. "If he had been struck it would have caused so much damage immediately that he (the warden) probably would have known," he said.
Out of options after crashing the pickup, the driver made a break for a cabin and barricaded himself inside.
With the standoff under way, officers lobbed tear gas canisters into the cabin. A single shot was heard inside before the cabin was engulfed in flames, said a law enforcement official who requested anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
If the body found there proves to be Dorner's, the death toll from the rampage would be four, including a Riverside police officer.
Police said Dorner began his run on Feb. 6 after they connected the Feb. 3 slayings of a former police captain's daughter and her fiance with his angry manifesto.
Dorner blamed former LAPD Capt. Randal Quan for providing poor representation before a police disciplinary board that fired him for filing a false report. Dorner, who is black, claimed he was the subject of racism by the department and was targeted for reporting misconduct.
Chief Charlie Beck, who initially dismissed his allegations, said he would reopen the investigation into his firing — not to appease the ex-officer, but to restore confidence in the black community, which had a tense relationship with police that has improved in recent years.
LAPD Lt. Andrew Neiman said his agency had returned to normal patrol operations Wednesday but about a dozen targets Dorner threatened to go after would continue to be protected until the remains are positively identified.
"This really is not a celebration," he said.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
Updated 2:25pm 2/13/13
(BIG BEAR, Calif.) -- Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-cop who authorities believe died in a fiery standoff with police Tuesday night, was apparently holed up in a snow-covered cabin in the California mountains just steps from where police had set up a command post and held press conferences during a five-day manhunt.
The charred remains of a body believed to be Dorner were removed from another cabin, high in the San Bernadino Mountains near Big Bear, Calif. Cornered inside the mountain cabin, the suspect shot at cops, killing one deputy and wounding another, before the building was consumed by flames.
Police are working to officially identify the body, but "have reason to believe that it is him," said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman.
The manhunt for Dorner, 33, led police to follow clues across the West and into Mexico, but it ended just miles from where Dorner's trail went cold last week.
Hundreds of cops scoured the mountains near Big Bear, a resort area in Southern California, since last Thursday using bloodhounds and thermal-imaging technology mounted to helicopters, in the search for Dorner. The former police officer and Navy marksman was being hunted as the suspect who had killed a cop and cop's daughter and had issued a "manifesto" declaring he was bent on revenge and pledged to kill dozens of LAPD cops and their family members.
But it now appears that Dorner never left the area, and may have hid out in an unoccupied cabin just steps from where cops had set up a command center.
It was at the cabin Tuesday morning where two women arrived to find a man matching Dorner's description inside. He took the women hostage, tying them up and stealing their car. At 12:20 p.m. PT, one of the women broke free and called police.
The suspect crashed that car and hijacked a pickup truck as officials from the state Fish and Game Department pursued him.
Dorner then took off into the woods on foot, where sheriff's deputies pursued him to a rental cabin in which he barricaded himself and began firing. Two deputies were wounded in the firefight and airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said. The second deputy received non-life threatening injuries, police said.
Over the course of the next five hours, heavily armed SWAT teams with tank-like vehicles surrounded the cabin, even firing tear gas inside, but never entered the building.
Cops said they heard a single gunshot go off from inside the cabin just as they began to see smoke and fire. Later they heard the sound of more gunshots, the sound of ammunition being ignited by the heat of the blaze, law enforcement officials said.
Dorner is accused of killing four people, including the deputy shot on Tuesday. Last Thursday he allegedly gunned down Riverside police officer Michael Crain, who was laid to rest Wednesday.
Crain's shooting and the discovery of an online manifesto pledging to kill dozens of cops launched the dragnet.
Dorner is also suspected of killing Monica Quan and her fiance, who were found shot to death Feb. 3. Quan was the daughter of former LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, who was mentioned as a target of Dorner's fury in the manifesto.
In the 6,000 word "manifesto," Dorner outlined his anger at the Los Angeles Police Department for firing him, and made threats against individuals he believed were responsible for ending his career with the police force five years ago. Dorner's grievance with police goes back five years, to when he was fired after filing what the LAPD determined to be a false report accusing other cops of brutality.
The LAPD assigned 50 protection details to guard officers and their families who were deemed possible targets. The LAPD said Wednesday it would maintain the details, until Dorner's body was positively identified.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
Updated 10:19 am. 2/13/13
Tami Abdollah reports police have found Christopher Dorner's driver's license with a body in the charred rubble of the cabin.
Updated 9:30 am 2/13/13
LOS ANGELES (KABC) - The manhunt for an ex-LA Cop suspected in the slayings of four people was over after charred human remains were found in the burned-out mountain cabin where he is believed to have been holed up during a gun battle that claimed the life of a San Bernardino sheriff's deputy.
About twelve families of LAPD staff threatened in a manifesto believed to have been posted by Christopher Jordan Dorner last week will continue to receive special protection as officials work to confirm that the remains found Tuesday in the cabin Big Bear are those of the 33-year-old ex-cop, Los Angeles police said this morning.
``The LAPD has now moved back into a normal state of police operation,''
LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman, a department spokesman, said at a briefing at LAPD
headquarters. ``That began late last night, and will continue now as far as ...
normal patrol operations.''
Neiman added that the protective details ``will remain in place until the
department and the protectees feel safe.''
Neiman also said that investigations were continuing into possible
any accomplices. He said that yet to be determined is who, if anyone would receive any of the $1,100,000 reward money that had been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) — A string of events that ended with the death of the man believed to be a wanted ex-Los Angeles police officer started when he encountered a mother and daughter pair of housekeepers at a cabin in the mountains east of Los Angeles.
Family member Jay Hylton told KABC-TV the pair wasn't hurt. The Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/XKkGt8 ) reported the women surprised Christopher Dorner Tuesday, he tied them up and then fled in a purple Nissan.
The Times reported that one maid eventually broke free and called 911.
About a half hour later, the suspect got into gunfights with authorities, one of whom was killed, after barricading himself in a cabin where a charred body was found, along with Dorner's driver's license.
LAPD says its operations are back to normal.
(LOS ANGELES) -- Investigators have located charred human remains in the burned-out California cabin where they believe suspected cop killer and ex-Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner was holed up as the structure burned to the ground, police said.
The human remains were found within the debris of the burned cabin and identification will be attempted through forensic means, the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department said in a press release early Wednesday morning.
Dorner barricaded himself in the cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear Tuesday afternoon after engaging in a gunfight with police, killing one officer and injuring another, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.
Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, which is the lead agency in the action, said on Tuesday night that investigators would remain at the site all night.
When Bachman was asked if police thought Dorner was still in the burning cabin, she said, "Right....We believe that the person that barricaded himself inside the cabin engaged in gunfire with our deputies and other law enforcement officers is still inside there, even though the building burned."
Bachman spoke shortly after the Los Angeles Police Department denied earlier reports that a body was found in the cabin, contradicting what law enforcement sources told ABC News and other news organizations.
Police around the cabin told ABC News they saw Dorner enter but never leave the building as it was consumed by flames, creating a billowing column of black smoke seen for miles.
A press conference is scheduled for later Wednesday in San Bernardino.
The sheriff's deputy killed during the shootout with Dorner Tuesday afternoon is believed to be his fourth victim after killing an LAPD officer and two other people this month, including the daughter of a former police captain.
Police received a 911 call at 12:20 p.m. PT that a suspect resembling Dorner had broken into a home in the Big Bear area, taken two hostages and stolen a car.
The two hostages, who were tied up by Dorner but later escaped, were evaluated by paramedics and were determined to be uninjured.
Officials say Dorner crashed the stolen vehicle and fled on foot to the cabin where he barricaded himself and exchanged fire with deputies from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Office and state Fish and Game officers.
The deputy who was wounded in the firefight with Dorner Tuesday afternoon is expected to survive, police said.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
A body believed to be that of Chris Dorner has been recovered from a burned cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains, ABC News confirms. The discovery comes following a shootout with police at the location before the structure burst into flames.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that the man believed to be fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner never came out of a California mountain cabin engulfed in flames.
The person who requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said a single gunshot apparently fired inside the cabin was heard just before the fire broke out Tuesday.
Officials were waiting for the fire to burn out before approaching the ruins to search for a body.
Authorities believe Dorner barricaded himself in the cabin after exchanging gunfire with deputies, killing one and wounding another.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
Two cops were airlifted from the scene after being wounded in the exchange of gunfire with the suspect.
Dorner is believed to have broken into a home nearby and taken two women hostage before stealing a car, police said. Officials say Dorner crashed the vehicle and fled on foot, where sheriff's deputies and Department of Fish and Wildlife officers exchanged fire with him, before he barricaded himself in a cabin.
The two women were evaluated by paramedics and were determined to be uninjured.
Police have sealed all roads going into the area and imposed a no-fly zone above the cabin, which is in a wooded area that has received several inches of snow in recent days.
Four Big Bear area schools were briefly placed on lockdown.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department stopped all traffic leaving the area and thoroughly searched vehicles, as SWAT team and tactical units could be seen driving toward the cabin, their sirens blaring.
Authorities believe Dorner may be watching reports of the standoff and have asked media not to broadcast images of police surrounding the cabin.
"If he's watching this, the message... is: Enough is enough. It's time to turn yourself in. It's time to stop the bloodshed. It's time to let this event and let this incident be over," Los Angeles Police spokesman Andy Smith told reporters at a press conference.
Dorner faces capital murder charges that involve the killing of Riverside police officer Michael Crain, who was gunned down in an ambush last Thursday.
Since then a massive manhunt has been underway, focused primarily in the San Bernardino Mountains, but extending to neighboring states and as far away as Mexico.
A capital murder charge could result in the death penalty if Dorner is captured alive and convicted.
The charges do not involve the slayings of Monica Quan and her fiance, who were found shot to death Feb. 3. Quan was the daughter of former LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, who was mentioned as a target of Dorner's fury in his so-called "manifesto," which he posted on his Facebook page.
In the 6,000 word "manifesto," Dorner outlined his anger at the Los Angeles Police Department for firing him, and made threats against individuals he believed were responsible for ending his career with the police force five years ago.
The LAPD has assigned 50 protection details to guard officers and their families who were deemed possible targets.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
Judy Bowers, editor of the local newspaper, The Big Bear Grizzly, details the location where Dorner is believed to be holed up, and the mood of Big Bear residents.
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Updated 2/12/13 @ 2:12pm
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Police Commission began its meeting Tuesday with a moment of silence for the three people fugitive former police officer Christopher Dorner is accused of killing and the wounded officers.
Police Chief Charlie Beck told the board that a review of Dorner's complaints about his firing is under way. Beck earlier announced the review, saying he takes seriously complaints of racism in the department. Dorner is black.
Commissioner John Mack, a former president of the Los Angeles Urban League, said the department has made "dramatic progress" in its relationship with the African-American community.
Commissioner Rafael Bernardino said the review should examine how Dorner was hired in the first place.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
The focus on the border, which is creating longer lines than normal at the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing, comes as law enforcement continue to comb through Big Bear Mountain where Dorner's burned truck was found last week, but that effort appears to be scaling back.
The dragnet was expanded as Dorner, a dismissed Los Angeles Police Department cop, was formally charged with murdering a Riverside police officer, a charge that could bring the death penalty if Dorner is captured and convicted.
The charges do not involve two other people Dorner is suspected of killing in Orange County.
The Border Patrol said they were heightening their checks of vehicles and pedestrians passing south into Mexico.
"Customs and Border Protection officers and agents from the Office of Field Operations, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Office of Air and Marine are providing assistance in the search as requested from law enforcement authorities," a statement from the Border Patrol reads. An official with the agency said the request was part of the search for Dormer.
The statement said that because of the extra precautions, "travelers heading southbound into Mexico may experience delays."
Dorner, 33, is suspected of killing Riverside police officer Michael Crain and seriously wounding another in an ambush that occurred last Wednesday. He is also suspected of killing Monica Quan, the daughter of ex-Los Angeles Police Department captain Randal Quan, and her fiancé Keith Lawrence, who were found shot to death on Feb. 3 in the parking lot of their condominium complex in Irvine, Calif.
"By both his words and conduct, he has made very clear to us that every law enforcement officer in Southern California is in danger of being shot and killed," Riverside District Attorney Paul Zellerbach said.
Dorner released a 6,000 word so-called "manifesto" on his Facebook page which outlined his distaste for the Los Angeles Police Department and made threats against individuals he believed were responsible for ending his career with the police force five years ago. The LAPD has assigned 50 protection details to guard officers and their families who were deemed possible targets.
Despite the costs, there are no plans to reduce the protection until Dorner is in custody, Los Angeles police Sgt. Rudy Lopez said.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. border inspectors are warning of unusually heavy traffic at California border crossings into Mexico amid the search for a fugitive ex-police officer wanted in the slayings of three people.
Customs and Border Protection said Monday that it has joined efforts to find 33-year-old Christopher Dorner in Southern California. Heightened vehicle inspections are producing delays at San Diego's San Ysidro (ee-SEE'-droh) border crossing into Tijuana.
Baja California state police agents assigned to search for American fugitives have been given photographs of Dorner. International liaison Alfredo Arenas says the Mexican agents have been warned to consider the suspect armed and extremely dangerous.
Dorner was charged Monday with murdering a police officer and attempting to murder three others in Riverside County.
Police Cmdr. Andy Smith says the always heavily guarded Grammys will see even more officers at Staples Center S