IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Police said Thursday a fugitive former Los Angeles police officer suspected of killing three people may be in Big Bear, a mountain resort east of Los Angeles.
Big Bear Fire Department Assistant Chief Mark Mills told the Los Angeles Times fresh tracks at the resort town are believed to have been left by Christopher Jordan Dorner. Mills said a burning pickup truck found on a forest road has been linked to Dorner, 33, who posted a manifesto online in which he threatened to harm police officials and their families, the newspaper reported.
A manhunt was under way in Southern California for Dorner, suspected of killing a young Irvine couple last weekend and killing a Riverside police officer and wounding another Thursday. He is also suspected of wounding an LAPD officer near Corona Thursday.
San Diego police Capt. Terry McManus told a news conference there is evidence "that is clear to us indicates Dorner was in the San Diego area."
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters Thursday the situation was "extremely worrisome and scary" and said Dorner, a former U.S. Naval Reserve lieutenant, was "armed and extremely dangerous," the Los Angeles Times reported.
"Of course he knows what he's doing -- we trained him," Beck said.
Asked if he had a message for Dorner, Beck said: "I would tell him to turn himself in. This has gone far enough. No one else needs to die."
San Diego police Lt. Joseph Ramos said someone accosted an 81-year-old boat owner and tried to steal the vessel at a marina near the Naval Base Point Loma submarine base.
Dorner, described as a 6-foot African-American weighing about 270 pounds, still has a military ID that would get him on the base, but Ramos said it was not clear whether the attacker at the marina was Dorner.
Naval officials said Dorner is an Iraq veteran, KGTV, San Diego, reported.
Sources told the Times police deployed security personnel at the homes of LAPD officials named in the manifesto, in which Dorner named as a target retired LAPD Capt. Randy Quan, the father of Monica Quan, the California State University-Fullerton assistant basketball coach who was found shot to death Sunday, along with her fiance, Keith Lawrence.
Randy Quan was part of the review that led to Dorner's dismissal in 2009 for allegedly lying about his training officer.
Dorner said in his online post being a police officer had been his life's ambition and he has suffered from severe depression. He said he was filled with rage directed toward the people who forced him out, the Times said.
Dorner complained he wasn't fairly represented by Quan and others during the review hearing.
"Your lack of ethics and conspiring to wrong a just individual are over. Suppressing the truth will [lead] to deadly consequences for you and your family. There will be an element of surprise where you work, live, eat, and sleep," he wrote, referring to Quan and several others.
"I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, I'm terminating yours," he said.
He threatened violence against other police officers in the manifesto.
"The violence of action will be high. ... I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty," Dorner wrote.
He also referenced the Irvine slayings in his online post.
"I know most of you who personally know me are in disbelief to hear from media reports that I am suspected of committing such horrendous murders and have taken drastic and shocking actions in the last couple of days," he said. "Unfortunately ... this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name."
Los Angeles police who were guarding an LAPD officer named in Dorner's manifesto mistakenly shot and wounded two women who were delivering newspapers in Torrance Thursday morning, Beck said.
"Tragically, we believe this is a case of mistaken identity," he said.
One of the women was listed in stable condition with two gunshot wounds and the other suffered what officials described as a minor wound.
