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Saga of Christopher Dorner Manhunt

February 14, 2013

Fred Thiagarajah

The manhunt for Christopher Dorner, 33, a former LAPD officer has come to an end.  Mr. Dorner’s thrust into national headlines began on February 3, 2013 with the murder of an O.C. couple.  Monica Quan and her fiancé Keith Lawrence were both found murdered in their parked Kia on the top floor of a parking structure at 2100 Scholarship in Irvine, CA.  Ms. Quan was a former standout basketball player and the daughter of former LAPD Police Chief. She was currently serving as the Women’s assistant basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton.  Her fiancé,  Mr. Lawrence, who was also a standout basketball player at the University of Southern California (USC), had recently been hired as campus officer at his alma mater.

On February 4, 2013, 24 hours after the murder of the O.C. couple, Mr. Dorner published a lengthy manifesto that promised “unconventional and asymmetrical warfare” against the police.  In the document Mr. Dorner mentioned the names of several officers who he threatened with violence.  It is in this manifesto that Mr. Dorner complains that Ms. Quan’s father did not represent him fairly in a disciplinary review process that ultimately led to his dismissal from the LAPD in 2008.

On February 6, 2013, Mr. Dorner’s whereabouts were tracked down to La Playa, California.  Authorities are claiming that Mr. Dorner attempted to steal a 47-foot boat from an elderly man at the Southwestern Club in Point Loma.  The boat owner reported that he was attacked by a man at gunpoint.  The man repeatedly threatened him and said that he wanted to take the boat in an effort to flee to Mexico.  Fortunately, a rope got caught on the propeller of the boat and the suspect fled.

In the early morning of February 7, 2013 (less than four hours after Mr. Dorner allegedly attempted to steal a boat) an LAPD officer who was providing protection for one of the officers named by Mr. Dorner in his online manifesto was shot in a shoot around in Corona, CA.  While the officer did not die he did suffer a graze wound to the head.  Moments afterwards, two Riverside police officers who were stopped at a red light were “ambushed” by a shooter, authorities reported. One of the officers, a 34-year-old veteran of the force, is killed. A 27-year-old officer was wounded, but is expected to fully recover.

As of February 8, 2013 the police had lost the trail on the murder suspect.  Authorities claim that they have been searching throughout the Big Bear region since that is where they found  Mr. Dorner’s Nissan pickup.

However, on February 13, 2013, the police picked up Dorner’s trail again and cornered him in a cabin in Big Bear.  A firefight ensued that left one deputy dead and another wounded, before the cabin burst into flames.  A body has been recovered that the police believe be that of Christopher Dorner, although a positive identification has yet to be made.

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