Updated at 9:45 p.m. Friday
Since allegedly shooting at two Riverside Police officers, killing one early Thursday morning, triple-murder suspect Christopher Jordan Dorner has managed to evade a massive manhunt spanning several states.
The search for Dorner, a disgruntled former LAPD officer, spread Friday from California and Nevada to Arizona and northern Mexico and back to Dorner’s home in Orange County, where authorities raided his mother’s La Palma residence.
The fired LAPD officer, 33, is suspected in the revenge slayings of an engaged couple in Irvine in addition to Thursday's ambush murder of the Riverside police officer. Even as officers across the region attempt to hunt Dorner down, police in Riverside are preparing to bury one of their own.
Funeral services for the officer, an 11-year veteran whose name is being withheld at the request of Riverside Police Department Chief Sergio Diaz, are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Grove Community Church, 19900 Grove Community Drive. The entire Riverside police force will turn out for Wednesday's funeral, complete with an honor guard procession that will bear the 34-year-old patrolman's casket to Riverside National Cemetery for internment.
In the meantime, the manhunt continues. As snow fell Friday in Big Bear, more than 100 police and canines combed the mountainous area where Dorner's truck was found ablaze Thursday.
According to San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon, deputies and police officers used specialized equipment such as armored personnel carriers equipped with chains to help them navigate the snow-covered roadways.
Sheriff's officials said the search would continue until Dorner was located or evidence was found indicating he was no longer in the Big Bear area. Officials said some tracks were found during the search effort, but investigators determined they did not belong to Dorner.
Meanwhile, authorities searched Dorner's mother's home in La Palma, where Dorner was believed to have either been staying or recently visited prior to the outbreak of violence. According to the Irvine Police Department, investigators examined computer records and emerged with bags of evidence. Dorner’s mother and sister were home during the search, which lasted several hours.
False Sightings
Elsewhere, police chased various false leads:
- Around 8:45 a.m. in downtown Los Angeles, sheriff's officials locked down the Twin Towers jail after a civilian employee said she saw "an individual outside that resembled suspect Dorner," officials said. KABC said Dorner's ex-wife works at the jail. The lockdown was lifted shortly after 2 p.m.
- The California Highway Patrol issued an alert Friday that Dorner could be driving a white Lexus last seen near Barstow, but that report was later discredited.
- A sighting in San Diego County late Thursday was branded a hoax and authorities may prosecute the caller.
- In Torrance on Thursday, police fired a hail of bullets at two female newspaper carriers driving a truck similar to Dorner's, wounding both. "It looked like the police had the goal of administering street justice and, in so doing, didn't take the time to notice that these two older, small Latina women don't look like a large black man," attorney Glen T. Jonas, who is representing the victims, told the Los Angeles Times.
The Manhunt Spreads
In Las Vegas, FBI agents searched a home Dorner owns, while the search expanded to Arizona and northern Mexico, according to reports.
The LAPD has been on full tactical alert, which extends officers' shifts, almost continuously since the Thursday morning shootings in Riverside County of three police, one of whom died.
Numerous officers had been standing guard outside LAPD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles since Dorner was identified Wednesday night as the suspect in the slayings of 28-year-old Monica Quan and her finance, 27-year-old Keith Lawrence, who were found shot to death Sunday in a parked car at their Irvine home.
Quan was the daughter of a retired LAPD captain who represented Dorner at the LAPD hearing that led to his firing, and the killings were an act of revenge outlined in a lengthy manifesto that discussed everything from police racism to Charlie Sheen and Michelle Obama, according to police.
Dorner is 6 feet tall and weighs 270 pounds. Anyone encountering him should consider him armed and extremely dangerous and should not approach but instead call 911 immediately, police said. A tip line has been established at 949-724-7192.
Also Read:
Hoax Wildcat Canyon Sighting of Dorner May Result in Charges
Killing Spree Manifesto: 'You Will Not Survive'
Suspect Sued LAPD After He Was Fired
Long Beach Woman Reportedly Was Married to Dorner
A False Alarm in San Diego
Engaged Couple Found Shot to Death in Irvine
-City News Service contributed to this report
