Slain Riverside police officer identified

Riverside police have released the name of a 34-year-old police officer and former Marine allegedly shot to death by Christopher Dorner early Wednesday in Riverside.
“Wednesday we are going to lay to rest, for the final time, our brother… Michael Crain,” Riverside Police Chief said Sunday at a news conference in Los Angeles.
The 34-year-old officer was an 11-year veteran of the department was also a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, the chief said.
Citing safety concerns, Diaz continued to withhold the name of the officer who was seriously wounded, but survived the alleged attack by Dorner.
A funeral for Crain is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at at the Grove Community Church in Riverside, to be followed immediately by internment at the Riverside National Cemetery.
Officials are planning extra security measures for the services.

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Federal officials issue aviation warning due to Dorner search

The Transportation Security Agency has cautioned those in the aviation industry to be vigilant as the search for Christopher Dorner — a former LAPD officer and Navy reservist believed to have flight training — continues.
A security advisory distributed to airports and pilots by the federal agency warned that Dorner was believed to have received flight training while in the Navy, “but the extent of his potential flying skills is unknown.”
The elusive triple-murder suspect has already travelled hundreds of miles across Southern California in his week long crime-spree, and tried unsuccessfully to steal a boat in San Diego late Wednesday.
“While there is no specific information at this time that Dorner is considering using general aviation, TSA requests that operators use an increased level of awareness concerning any suspicious activity during the coming days,” according to the TSA alert.
Suggested precautions included securing unattended aircraft, verifying cargo and passengers, keeping an eye out for unknown pilots or personnel, watching out for altered or inconsistent identification and being aware of anyone persons “who appear tu be under stress or the control of other persons.”
The TSA requested any aircraft thefts be reported immediately, and any suspicious activity reported to local law enforcement as well as the TSA.

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Reward to be offered for in hunt for Christopher Dorner, search in Big Bear scaled down

LOS ANGELES — Officials this afternoon plan to announce a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Christopher Dorner.
More information will be released at a 1 p.m. news conference at Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters, according to a written statement from the multi-agency task force formed to pursue Dorner.
Police and other officials from Los Angeles, Irvine, Riverside, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service are expected.
Meanwhile in Big Bear, where Dorner’s disabled truck was found loaded with weapons and survival gear Thursday morning, day four of the tireless manhunt was gearing up to resume the search, but with half as many personnel as in previous days.
A scaled-down search effort continued with 50 officers, including SWAT team members combing the wooded area behind the resort where Dorner’s burned out truck was discovered Thursday, according to sheriff’s officials.
The smaller number of searchers is not an indication authorities believe Dorner is not in the mountain area, according to Cindy Bachman, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department, but that a smaller area is left to be searched.
At the peak of the manhunt, more than 100 officers and authorities were in the snow-covered community searching for the fugitive.
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s authorities moved the command post which for the last three days had been at the Bear Mountain Ski resort to the Big Bear sheriff’s station.
Temperatures dropped to 5 degrees in Big Bear Lake over he weekend.
Anyone with information on Dorner’s whereabouts was asked to contact the task force at 213-486-6860. Tips may also be submitted anonymously by calling L.A. Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.

– Brian Day and Beatriz Valenzuela

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LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says he will re-examine Dorner’s grievances

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck sat down for an interview with with CBS Saturday afternoon in which he announced he would take another look at the case of Christopher Dorner’s dismissal.
He said the move was solely to encourage public trust in the department.
“Dorner’s allegations are about a police department that doesn’t treat African Americans fairly, and I don’t think that’s true,” the chief said. “And I want to make sure we don’t lose this precious ground we’ve gained.”
“That’s the totality of the reason I will look at this investigation again. More important than the Dorner aspect is the community aspect. I’m not doing this to appease Dorner,” he said.
“It’s about restoring faith,” Beck added. “I worry whenever faith in the police department is eroded.”
Beck also used the interview to apologize to the two women mistakenly shot and wounded by LAPD officers early Thursday in Torrance while guarding one of the possible targets mentioned in Dorner’s manifesto.
“I want people to understand that this is a far different situation than police officers usually face,” Beck said.
“I publicly apologize for what happened,” he said. “They were truly innocent. When innocents are injured, nothing affects me more greatly.”

 

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Christopher Dorner continues to elude capture

BIG BEAR — The massive search for accused triple-murderer Christopher Dorner picked up again Saturday morning in Big Bear under sunny skies after more than a foot of snowfall blanketed the area overnight.
There were no reported sightings of the police- and military-trained suspect, who has now been embarking on his self-proclaimed vendetta against law enforcement for nearly a week.
Though more than 100 personnel continued combing the ski resort town at a 7,000-foot elevation with help from a sheriff’s helicopter with forward-looking infrared optics allowing the operators to see body heat underground, speculation grew among residents and officials that Dorner may no longer be in the area.
But the weather cooperated with searchers much better Saturday then Friday, as a storm that dropped 14 inches of snow on Big Bear moved out of the area.
“We’re done with the precipitation,” said Robert Balfour of the National Weather Service in San Diego. “(That will be replaced by) dry, cold frosty mornings and then probably around Monday, Tuesday looking at some wind out of the northeast. Basically, our normal winter dry pattern: more sunshine, warmer daytime temperatures, still cold at night.”
After showing up in Irvine, San Diego, Corona and Riverside, the manhunt focus of the manhunt shifted to Big Bear Thursday after Dorner’s pickup truck was found abandoned and set afire near the Bear Mountain ski resort. But there have been no confirmed sighting of him on the mountain since.
The Nissan Titan was processed and being turned over to the Irvine Police Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said Friday.
Irvine police released no information Saturday regarding the contents or condition of the scorched truck, or whether investigators developed any leads from it.
Numerous unsubsantiated reports of Dorner sightings were called into police throughout the Southland Thursday and Friday.
Dorner is suspected of fatally shooting an engaged couple, whose bodies were discovered Sunday near their Irvine home, according to Irvine police. The bodies of Monica Quan, 28, and her fiance Keith Lawrence, 27, in a car near their Irvine home.
On Wednesday, as police expanded their manhunt and protected potential targets listed in Dorner’s lengthy online manifesto, Dorner allegedly shot and killed a Riverside police officer in Riverside and seriously wounding another.
The fatal wounding of the police officer took place only minutes after he opened fire on two LAPD officers in Corona, authorities said.
Dorner, a former Naval reservist, cited his termination from the LAPD in early 2009 for his rage at law enforcement, and in partuclar, the LAPD. He claimed in his manifesto he was unjustly fired for reporting excessive force on the part of his training officer, and the termination ruined his life.
He further wrote that he is heavily armed with weapons invluding a .50-caliber sniper rifle and sholder-fired missiles, and prepared to use them against authorities who come after him.

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Dorner featured in Oklahoma newspaper after turning in found cash in 2002

Accused triple-murderer and fugitive Christopher Dorner, who has dominated news headlines in recent days as an intense search for him has spanned California and beyond, was featured in an Oklahoma newspaper in a much more positive light in 2002.
An news story originally written in 2002 and re-published on Indenes.com Friday gives an account of the suspect and another man finding a bank bag containing nearly $8,000 and immediately turning it in to police.
Dorner, who was in the Navy, and the other good Samaritan, a Marine, were both students at Vance Air Force Base at the time, the news agency reported.
They were reportedly driving into town Nov. 2, 2002, when they spotted a bank bag in the middle of the street.
Inside they discovered $7,792 in cash and checks that belonged to a local church, and promptly brought the money to the police department.
“The military stresses integrity,” Dorner told EnidNews.com. “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.”
“I didn’t work for it, so it’s not mine. And it was for the church,” he added. “It’s not so much the integrity, but it was someone else’s money. I would hope someone would do that for me.”

Original story in EnidNews.com

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LAPD officer accused of assaulting man at Whittier party

LOS ANGELES — Officials Thursday filed charges against an off-duty Los Angeles police officer accused of punching another man without warning, breaking his jaw, during a party in Whittier in July of 2011.
Donald Albert Peko, 35, was charged with battery causing serious bodily injury in Los Angeles Superior Court, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s officials said in a written statement.
The charge came more than 14 months after the date of the alleged attack.
Peko was freed from jail on a $50,000 bond and ordered to return to court Jan. 18 for arraignment, officials said.
Peko was at a family party in Whittier when he told 23-year-old Christopher Price that he could not leave the party with an open container of alcohol, the D.A,’s statement said.
“When price started to drink to finish the bottle, Peko allegedly punched him once in the jaw without warning,” according to the statement. “Price suffered a broken jaw.”
The case was investigated by the Whittier Police Department and is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Geoffrey Rendon of the D.A.’s Justice System Integrity Division.
In an unrelated case, two LAPD officers were arrested by Whittier police on suspicion of beating and pistol-whipping a man outside a restaurant in the 15600 block of Whittwood Lane Jan. 26, 2010.
After a 22-month-long investigation, prosecutors declined to file charges against the two officers citing “insufficient evidence,” D.A.’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. The case was rejected in November of 2011.

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Hollywood gunman identified

HOLLYWOOD — A 26-year-old former Azusa resident who opened fire on cars randomly at a busy Hollywood intersection Friday before being fatally shot by police has been identified, officials said.
Tyler Brehm died at the scene of the bizarre incident, whichj unfolded shortly after 10 a.m. at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner’s Lt. Larry Dietz said. His current city of residency was not clear.
Azusa police described him as a former resident of an Arrow Highway apartment complex in that city.  He moved out several months ago, but it was not clear Saturday how long he had lived there.
A 40-year-old man who was struck by one of Brehm’s bullets during the rampage was hospitalized with serious injuries but expected to survive, officials said.
A motive in the shooting was unknown, however Brehm was heard screaming “kill me” and “I’m gonna die” during the rampage. 
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“Grim Sleeper” suspect’s laywer attacks LAPD release of photos

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES — The attorney for a mechanic accused of the “Grim Sleeper” serial killings criticized Los Angeles police Saturday for releasing photographs of women seized at the suspect’s home.
Louisa Pensanti said the photos include family and friends of suspect Lonnie Franklin Jr. who are now under intense public and police scrutiny. She also said investigators’ comments at a recent news conference were “jeopardizing Lonnie Franklin’s chance for a fair trial.”
“Those are family photos,” she told The Associated Press, adding that Franklin’s relatives are upset that the photos were released publicly.
LAPD spokeswoman Norma Eisenman said investigators could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last week, police released the photos of about 160 women in the hopes of finding out who they are and if anything happened to them.
Police said they’ve received hundreds of calls. Several callers told investigators they were among the women in the photographs, but police must interview them individually to be sure.
Before the photos were released, investigators contacted Pensanti asking that Franklin’s wife come down to the police station to view the photographs, the lawyer said. When Pensanti instead requested a copy of the photos so she could review them privately, investigators refused, she said.
“There’s no reason she had to come down to the police department,” Pensanti said.
Franklin is accused of killing 10 women beginning in 1985, and he has pleaded not
guilty. The photos and videos were found in Franklin’s home and garage during a search after his July arrest. None of the photos depicted the alleged victims.
Investigators spent years trying to crack the case. Franklin’s arrest finally came after his son was swabbed for DNA after being arrested on an unrelated matter, and the sample connected the father to evidence from the killings.

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