Local police on alert amid manhunt
Local police departments on Thursday took steps to protect their officers from an ex-LAPD officer who earlier in the day allegedly shot three police officers, one fatally, before leading authorities on a manhunt across the Southland.
With Christopher Dorner — a former Navy Reserve lieutenant who had allegedly written a lengthy online message that threatened “unconventional and asymmetrical warfare” against police — on the loose, local police officials took steps to make their officers less vulnerable to possible attack as the tense day wore on.
The police departments for Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena all pulled their motorcycle patrol officers from the field and redeployed them in cars to reduce their vulnerability to possible gunfire.
Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said officers were “hyper vigilant” of anyone who matched Dorner’s description.
Dorner was considered extremely dangerous, and the effort to catch him took a multi-agency task force from Riverside, to San Diego County, back to L.A. and then to the mountains near Big Bear.
“It’s kind of nerve-racking,” Lorenz said.
Dorner was suspected of shooting three police officers, one of whom died, in Riverside County early Thursday. Dorner also was suspected of killing a couple in Orange County earlier this week who were found shot in a car. One of the victims was the daughter of a former LAPD captain named in the manifesto he allegedly posted online.
Burbank police officers were also patrolling in pairs Thursday, said Burbank Interim Police Chief Scott LaChasse.
“Based on the severity of what’s happened, how he’s mobile and been in several different jurisdictions, our objective is to make sure our officers are as safe as possible,” LaChasse said.
As of Thursday afternoon, LaChasse said it hadn’t been necessary to increase the number of patrol officers in the field, but added that if the situation changed, “we have the ability to do that.”
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