A fugitive ex-cop accused of a grudge-fueled killing spree targeting police officers and their families is believed to have died in a mountain cabin that burned down in the climax to a massive weeklong manhunt acrossSouthern California, authorities said on Wednesday.
Police were awaiting forensic analysis to confirm that charred human remains found in the smoldering ruins of the cabin were those of the 33-year-old fugitive, Christopher Dorner.
Authorities including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the man, who had barricaded himself inside the cabin during a standoff with police on Tuesday in the snow-swept hills of the San Bernardino National Forest, was almost certainly Dorner.
"We all are breathing a sigh of relief. We do believe it is the body of Christopher Dorner, but we don't know for certain," Villaraigosa told CNN, adding that a positive, conclusive identification could be days or weeks away.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Lieutenant Andy Neiman said the LAPD had returned to "a normal state of operations." But he said special security details assigned to about a dozen officers and their families threatened by Dorner would remain in place for the time being.
Dorner is suspected of killing four people in all, including a deputy sheriff who was shot on Tuesday.
He had been on the run since last Wednesday when he was named as the prime suspect in the slaying of a couple in Irvine, south of Los Angeles.
The search intensified last Thursday after he was accused of killing of a Riverside policeman, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, in an ambush that left a second officer wounded.
Law enforcement converged later that day in the San Bernardino Mountains after a pickup truck identified as Dorner's was found abandoned and burning in the snow near the ski resort community of Big Bear Lake northeast of Los Angeles.
The ensuing manhunt, stretching from the desert north of the mountains to the Mexican border, was described by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck as the region's most extensive ever.
'WARFARE' ON POLICE
An angry manifesto posted last week on Dorner's Facebook page claimed that he had been wrongly dismissed from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2008. He vowed to seek revenge by unleashing "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" on officers and their families.
The cabin where Dorner is believed to have made his last stand was a short distance from a police command post.
Tuesday's climax to the manhunt began when two housekeepers encountered a man believed to have been Dorner inside a vacant cabin in the Big Bear area. They surprised the fugitive, who tied them up and then took off in a purple Nissan parked near the cabin, authorities said.
One of the women freed herself and called police. Villaraigosa said the housekeepers might end up qualifying for a $1 million reward that was posted for information leading to Dorner's capture, the largest sum ever offered in a Southern California criminal investigation.
State game wardens spotted the stolen vehicle and gave chase. The suspect crashed that car, then commandeered a pickup truck at gunpoint from another motorist and traded gunfire with the game wardens as he sped away, authorities said.
Dorner ultimately abandoned the truck and fled into the woods to the cabin, which was believed to be otherwise vacant, and exchanged gunfire with deputies who closed in on the scene.
During a lull in the shooting, the cabin caught fire and was quickly engulfed in flames. It remained unclear on Wednesday how the blaze began.
The Los Angeles Times reported that authorities had pumped tear gas into the cabin through smashed windows and called for the suspect to surrender but received no response. As police used a demolition vehicle to tear down the walls, they heard a gunshot from inside before the cabin burst into flames, the Times said.
Dorner's last confirmed encounter with authorities was on Thursday, police said, when he ambushed the two Riverside policemen. The former U.S. Navy officer is also suspected of having exchanged gunfire on Thursday with police in nearby Corona. One officer was slightly wounded there.
Dorner's first alleged victims were a campus security officer and his fiancée, the daughter of a retired Los Angeles police captain who represented Dorner during police disciplinary hearings leading to his dismissal.
Dorner was terminated after a police board of inquiry found that he had lied in accusing a training officer of using excessive force against a homeless man. LAPD Chief Becker has opened a review of that case.
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