Christopher Dorner shootings and manhunt

On February 4, 2014, LAPD chief Charlie Beck announced that eight officers had violated the LAPD's use-of-force policy and would be disciplined. Beck noted that California state law prevents him from disclosing the nature of the discipline publicly, but that discipline could range "from extensive retraining up to termination." Disciplinary actions for the officers involved did not include criminal charges.

Dorner was a United States Navy Reserve officer, commissioned in 2002. He commanded a security unit at the Naval Air Station Fallon (Fallon, Nevada), served with a Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit from June 2004 to February 2006, and was deployed to Bahrain with Coastal Riverine Group Two from November 2006 to April 2007. He was honorably discharged from the Navy Reserve as a lieutenant on February 1, 2013.

In early February 2013, coincident with the start of a series of revenge shootings, Dorner was purported to have posted a detailed note on his Facebook page, discussing his history, motivations, and plans. This 11,000-word post became known as his "manifesto".

On February 9, 2013, in response to Dorner's manifesto and the start of the killing spree, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck informed Dorner through the media that there would be a review of the disciplinary case that led to Dorner's dismissal. Beck said officials would re-examine the allegations by Dorner that his law enforcement career was undone by racist colleagues.

Dorner's killing spree began with a package stating his complaints, sent to Anderson Cooper and arriving at CNN on February 1, 2013. After the first killings, Dorner's threats in his manifesto caused law enforcement to mount a widespread manhunt that spread from California to Nevada and Mexico. Protection details were set up for over 40 potential targets of Dorner, and thousands of police were assigned to patrol Southern California's highways. The LAPD also took patrol officers off motorcycles for their protection.

In two separate incidents in the early morning hours of February 7, 2013, police fired on people who turned out to be unrelated to Dorner. Dorner was not present at either of the incidents.

In April 2013 the Los Angeles Police Department paid a $4.2 million settlement to Margie Carranza and Emma Hernandez, the two women who were mistakenly shot by police on the morning of February 7, 2013.

The city of Torrance initially offered a $500,000 settlement to David Perdue for ramming his pickup truck and then shooting at him on the morning of February 7, 2013. This was rejected and with the case set to go to trial in August 2014 they reached an agreement in July 2014 for a $1.8 million settlement paid by the city of Torrance to Perdue.

On February 10, 2013, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Dorner and, because the terms of the offer were not carefully stipulated, judges had to later decide how the reward would be divided. Ultimately the reward was divided four ways, with $800,000 going to James and Karen Reynolds, who were tied up by Dorner in their Big Bear cabin before he stole their vehicle, $150,000 to Daniel McGowan, and $50,000 to R. L. McDaniel.

There were online protests against the LAPD as well as a protest at police headquarters on February 16, 2013. Protestors stated that they objected to the manner in which Dorner's dismissal was handled, the reckless shooting of civilians by the LAPD during the manhunt, and the police intentionally setting fire to the cabin in which Dorner was hiding.

Dorner appealed to the California Court of Appeal, which affirmed the lower court's ruling on October 3, 2011. Under California law, administrative findings (in this case by the LAPD) are entitled to a presumption of correctness and the petitioner (in this case Dorner) bears the burden of proving that they were incorrect. The appeals court concluded that the LAPD had substantial evidence for its finding that Dorner was not credible in his allegations against Evans.

In 2008, Dorner was fired by the LAPD for making false statements in his report and in his testimony against Evans. Dorner's attorney, Quan, stated that Dorner was treated unfairly and was being made a scapegoat. Dorner appealed his termination by filing a writ of mandamus with the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Judge David Yaffe wrote that he was "uncertain whether the training officer kicked the suspect or not" but nevertheless upheld the department's decision to fire Dorner, according to the Los Angeles Times. Yaffe ruled that he would presume that the LAPD's accusations that Dorner's report was false would stand even though he did not know if his report of Evans kicking Gettler was false. This enraged Dorner, who yelled out in disbelief at the end of the hearing, "I told the truth! How can this [ruling] happen?".

During the evening hours in Irvine, California, 28-year-old Monica Quan and her fiancé, 27-year-old Keith Lawrence, were shot dead in Lawrence's parked white Kia Optima outside their condominium complex. Quan, a women's basketball assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton, was the daughter of Randal Quan, a former LAPD captain and the lawyer who represented Dorner during his 2008 dismissal hearing. Lawrence was a campus public safety officer for the University of Southern California.

Dorner later stated that he was the only African-American student in his school from first grade to seventh grade, and that he had altercations due to racism. When he was a teenager, he decided to become a police officer and joined a youth program offered by the police department in La Palma, where he lived at the time of the shootings. Neighbors described Dorner as belonging to an admired, well-liked family and a man who usually kept to himself. He was previously married, with no children. Court records show his wife filed for divorce in 2007.

On July 28, 2007, Dorner and Evans responded to the Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro, California regarding a disturbance being caused by Christopher Gettler, who had schizophrenia with severe dementia. Dorner filed a report alleging that Evans had used excessive force in her treatment of Gettler, accusing her of twice kicking Gettler in the chest and once in the face while he was handcuffed and lying on the ground. Gettler's father testified that his son told him he had been kicked by a police officer. Dorner filed the report the day after being told that Evans had given an evaluation saying that he needed to improve his performance.

In two separate incidents during the manhunt, police shot at three civilians unrelated to Dorner, mistaking their pickup trucks for the vehicle being driven by Dorner (which was a dark gray 2005 Nissan Titan). One of the civilians was hit by the police gunfire, another was wounded by shattered glass, and a third individual was injured when police rammed his vehicle and opened fire. The officers involved were not charged with any crime.

During his time as a naval reservist, Dorner joined the LAPD. He entered the police academy in 2005, graduating in 2006. Shortly afterwards, his duties as a probationary officer were interrupted when he was deployed by the Navy Reserve to Bahrain. On his return from duty in July 2007, Dorner was paired with training officer Teresa Evans to complete his probationary training. According to the Los Angeles Times, Evans said that on Dorner's first day working with her, he told her that he planned to sue the LAPD after he completed his probationary period, in response to how the LAPD had responded to complaints he had previously made against his classmates.

Hours later, the burning remains of Dorner's vehicle, a dark gray 2005 Nissan Titan truck, were found on a remote fire trail by a local, Daniel McGowan, near Big Bear Lake, about 80 miles (130 km) from Los Angeles. Investigators spread out to search for Dorner in the surrounding area, and about 125 officers went from door to door. All schools in the Bear Valley Unified School District were placed into a state of lockdown.

In 2002, while a student at Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance Air Force Base (Enid, Oklahoma), Dorner and a classmate found a bag containing nearly US$8,000 (equivalent to about $12,100 in 2021) that belonged to the nearby Enid Korean Church of Grace. The two handed the money to the police. When asked their motive, Dorner replied that, "The military stresses integrity. ... There was a couple of thousand dollars, and if people are willing to give that to a church, it must be pretty important to them." Dorner also stated his mother taught him honesty and integrity. During his time as a reservist, Dorner received a Navy Rifle Marksmanship Ribbon and a Navy Pistol Shot Ribbon with expert device.

Christopher Jordan Dorner (June 4, 1979 – February 12, 2013) was a former officer of the Los Angeles Police Department who, beginning on February 3, 2013, committed a series of shootings in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County, California. The victims were law enforcement officers and the daughter of a retired police captain. Dorner killed four people and wounded three others. On February 12, 2013, Dorner died during a standoff with San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputies after a shootout at a cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Christopher Jordan Dorner was born on June 4, 1979, in New York and grew up in Southern California. He attended Cypress High School in Cypress, California, where he graduated in 1997. Dorner graduated from Southern Utah University in 2001, with a major in political science and a minor in psychology. While there, he was a football running back from 1999 to 2000.

At about 5:30 am (PST), at least seven LAPD officers on a protection detail of an unnamed LAPD official's residence in the 19500 block of Redbeam Street in the Los Angeles County city of Torrance opened fire on the back of a light blue Toyota Tacoma and shot its two occupants, Emma Hernandez, 71, and her daughter, Margie Carranza, 47, delivering newspapers for the Los Angeles Times. The vehicle, according to officers, was spotted exiting a freeway and heading to the area of the residence that officers were protecting, was thought by police to match the description of Dorner's 2005 gray Nissan Titan and was moving without its headlights on. Hernandez was shot in the back and Carranza received wounds to her hand. Their attorney claimed police "had no idea who was in that vehicle" when they opened fire, and that nothing about his clients or their vehicle matched the descriptions given of the suspect or his truck. The two women stated that they were given no warning prior to being fired upon.