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Hunt for ex-cop goes on amid snowstorm
BY GREG RISLING and TAMI ABDOLLAH, Associated Press
BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. -- Authorities hunting for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected of going on a deadly rampage were expected to wrap up their search of cabins in a Southern California mountain resort town by nightfall Friday.
San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said increased patrols of Big Bear Lake would continue but there wouldn't be a nighttime search in the forest Friday night due to heavy snowfall. The search was scheduled to resume at daybreak today when planes can take off again.
Authorities believe Christopher Dorner fled to the rugged area after killing three people to get back at those he blamed for ending his police career. They found his burned-out truck there this week.
Bachman says searchers will keep looking because it's possible that Dorner is somewhere in the forest.
More than 100 officers, including SWAT teams, were driven in glass-enclosed snow machines and armored personnel carriers to hunt for Dorner.
With bloodhounds in tow, officers went door to door as snow fell, aware to the reality they could be walking into a trap set by the well-trained former Navy reservist who knows their tactics and strategies as well as they do.
"The bad guy is out there, he has a certain time on you, and a distance. How do you close that?" asked T. Gregory Hall, a retired tactical supervisor for a special emergency response team for the Pennsylvania State Police.
"The bottom line is, when he decides that he is going to make a stand, the operators are in great jeopardy," Hall said.
As authorities weathered heavy snow and freezing temperatures in the mountains, thousands of heavily armed police remained on the lookout throughout California, Nevada, Arizona and northern Mexico.
Police said officers still were guarding more than 40 people mentioned as targets in a rant they said Dorner posted on Facebook. He vowed to use "every bit of small arms training, demolition, ordinance and survival training I've been given" to bring "warfare" to the LAPD and its families.
At noon Friday, police and U.S. Marshals accompanied by computer forensics specialists served a search warrant on his mother's house in the Orange County city of La Palma. Dorner's mother and sister were there at the time, and a police spokesman said they were cooperating.
The manhunt had Southern California residents on edge. Unconfirmed sightings were reported near Barstow, about 60 miles north of the mountain search, at Point Loma base near San Diego and in downtown Los Angeles.
Some law enforcement officials speculated that he appeared to be everywhere and nowhere, and that he was trying to spread out their resources.
For the time being, their focus was on the mountains 80 miles east of Los Angeles -- a snowy wilderness, filled with deep canyons, thick forests and jagged peaks, that creates peril as much for Dorner as the officers hunting him. Bad weather grounded helicopters with heat-sensing technology.
After the discovery of his truck Thursday afternoon, SWAT teams in camouflage started scouring the mountains.
As officers worked through the night, a storm blew in, possibly covering the trail of tracks that had led them away from his truck but offering the possibility of new trails to follow.
"The snow is great for tracking folks as well as looking at each individual cabin to see if there's any signs of forced entry," San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.
The small army has the advantage of strength in numbers and access to resources, such as special weapons, to bring him in.
Without the numbers that authorities have, Dorner will likely rely on the element of surprise, experts said.
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