Dennis RomeroAlthough authorities last night wouldn't confirm that Christopher Dorner died in a shootout with authorities near Big Bear yesterday, San Bernardino County Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindi Bachman did say whomever fired at cops was believed to be among the ashes of a burned out cabin.
You can read between those lines for yourself. In the meantime, here's what happened on Tuesday:
12:22 p.m: San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies received a call about a stolen car. Reports indicate that two “cleaning ladies” on-the-job came across a suspect who looked like Dorner inside a cabin. He allegedly bound them with zip ties and took a purple Nissan sedan belonging to one of the two. At least one of the women freed herself and called police.
*[Correction: The folks tied up for a reported 20 minutes are a married couple who apparently own the cabin].
Deputies responded to the 1200 block of Club View Drive, according to a San Bernardino Sheriff's statement. Many news outlets pointed out last night that the location was within eyesight of the staging area, off Moonridge Road, for police on the Dorner manhunt and for news media covering the case.
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12:45 p.m: Lt. Patrick Foy of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife told reporters that a two-man team of wardens sent to the Big Bear area specifically to help out with the Dorner manhunt heard the be-on-the-lookout report for a stolen car and came across just such a purple Nissan “tucked in behind” two school buses moving along on highway 38.
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The wardens turned their vehicle around and tried to give chase but lost the vehicle as it turned off the highway. However, two other wardens on patrol apparently guessed right, made the same turn as the suspect, and came across a pickup truck, Foy said, driving erratically in the opposite direction.
Now a man who looked like Dorner was behind the wheel of a pickup truck he allegedly carjacked, Foy said. The victim of that carjacking, a reserve police officer, told KCAL News that a man who looked like Dorner appeared to have crashed the Nissan. He said the suspect pointed an “assault” or “sniper-type rifle” right at him.
After the suspect drove that truck past the two wardens, and as another warden rolled up on the scene, the pickup's driver allegedly opened fire, Foy said. One warden pulled out his AR-15 rifle with .308 caliber ammunition and popped off 15 rounds, he said. It wasn't clear if the suspect was hit.
View Map to Big Bear in a larger map
Minutes later: Not far away, near Glass and 7 Oaks roads in the Angelus Oaks area, San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies came across the truck, apparently crashed or abandoned, and ended up in a firefight with a suspect, according to that department. It was caught on video:
2:24 p.m: According to a sheriff's statement, two deputies were shot in the firefight: One was pronounced dead at Loma Linda Medical Center at 2:24 p.m. Here's what the department said about the other lawman:
The deputy wounded … has undergone surgery and medical personnel are optimistic as to his recovery. However, it is believed several additional surgeries will be required.
Shortly after 4 p.m: Smoke started billowing from a cabin in which the suspect was believed to be holed up. Soon it erupted in flames. There appeared to be no attempt to put out the fire as a result of the threat of gunfire and, according to reports, possible munitions inside.
Some reports indicated a single gunshot was heard right before the cabin went up in smoke. San Bernardino County authorities couldn't answer the question of whether the fire might have been started by the suspect or by tear gas canisters fired by deputies.
Earlier it appeared that the suspect set off some sort of diversionary smoke bomb as deputies descended on the scene, so anything's possible.
8 p.m: After much speculation and false-confirmation of Dorner's death in the news media, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith told reporters that there was no positive ID of any body found in the post-fire ruble.
In fact, Smith said:
The cabin is still to hot for anybody to go into there. Any reports that a body has been found are not true.
He told reporters that the department was still on tactical alert and that security details for 50 LAPD families believed to have been threatened by Dorner would continue until that ID was made.
After 8 p.m: Not long after that Cindi Bachman of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said much of the same. But she also indicated that whomever shot it out with her brethren on the force was probably a pile of ashes at the bottom of that burned-out cabin.
We believe he is still inside that cabin that caught fire.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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