Experts, including ex-LAPD Chief William Bratton, downplayed Christopher Dorner's tactical skills and abilities today, with the former top cop saying that “he's not Rambo.”

Bratton tried to cut down the image of the ex-Los Angeles officer as a highly trained killer with fearsome police and military training during an interview on KFI AM 640 this afternoon.

A retired FBI supervisor who ran the bureau's fugitive task force said much of the same:

Mark Llewellyn told the Weekly that Dorner's tactical skills are not that impressive:

Obviously he went through training, but not any tactical training as far as I know. His background is not that extensive. Seems to me that's being overplayed. Obviously he's familiar with how police operate, and that could certainly be a benefit to him. But every body has to go somewhere.

Bratton went further, saying that Dorner was an entry-level officer still on probationary status, which assigns such cops to work alongside a more-senior training officer:

He was p2 [police officer II] with five years on the job and no special training. … In the military his Iraq service was spent guarding oil rigs. … This guy is not a survivalist. He's not had any special training that I'm aware of that would make him into some kind of cult-like figure … There's nothing special about this guy.

At a news conference yesterday Chief Charlie Beck sounded ominous about Dorner's skills, saying:

He knows what he's doing. We trained him. He was also a member of the armed forces. It is extremely worrisome and scary, especially to the police officers involved.

Dorner posted a photo on his Facebook page, which has been taken down, that shows him posing with a Navy training certificate. It says he completed a course that could quality him to become an antitorrorism officer at the Center for Security Forces.

Llewellyn is not impressed and expressed confidence that law enforcement officials would get their former brother in arms:

He's not going to elude the police or the FBI.

Bratton seemed to feel the same:

The worst thing [for him] … would be to be arrested by the LAPD department he hates.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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