SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner killed himself as the cabin he was barricaded inside caught
fire following a shootout with officers, police revealed Friday while also confirming he spent most of his time on the run
in a condominium just steps away from the command center set up to find him.
"The information that we have right now
seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner's life was
self-inflicted,"
sheriff's Capt. Kevin Lacy told reporters at a news conference.
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.
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 in a manifesto posted on Facebook that he would bring "warfare" to LAPD officers
and their families.
Within days he had killed four people, including two police officers.
He killed the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance Feb. 3 and later a Riverside police officer he ambushed at
a traffic light before disappearing into the San Bernardino National Forest near Big Bear Lake where his burned-out truck
was found last week.
From there he eluded a huge manhunt for several days until Karen and Jim Reynolds found him inside their cabin-style condo
within 100 yards of a command post for the manhunt when they arrived Tuesday to ready it for vacationers.
Dorner, who at the time was being sought for three killings, confronted the couple with a drawn gun, "jumped out and hollered
'stay calm,'" Jim Reynolds said at a news conference.
His wife screamed and ran, but Dorner caught
her, Reynolds said. The couple said they were taken to a bedroom where
Dorner
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 believed 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 Dorner fled in their purple Nissan Rogue, Karen Reynolds managed to call 911 from a cellphone on the coffee table.
Police have not commented on the Reynoldses'
account. But the notion of him holed up just across the street from the
command
post was shocking to many, though 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."
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 Reynoldses' cabin each day.
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 and police have to have a reason to
enter a building.
"You can't just kick in every door," he said.