Drones to be Used in Dorner Case

[Juana]

I'm sure someone already called the fact that drones would be used on US citizens.

They believe burly, heavily-armed Christopher Dorner is holed-up in the wilderness of California's snow-capped San Bernardino mountains 80 miles east of Los Angeles.

The burnt-out shell of his pick-up truck was discovered in the nearby resort of Big Bear, where residents and tourists have been warned to stay indoors as the search continues.

Yesterday, as a task force of 125 officers, some riding Snowcats in the rugged terrain, continued their search, it was revealed that Dorner has become the first human target for remotely-controlled airborne drones on US soil.

A senior police source said: "The thermal imaging cameras the drones use may be our only hope of finding him. On the ground, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Asked directly if drones have already been deployed, Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz, who is jointly leading the task force, said: "We are using all the tools at our disposal."

The use of drones was later confirmed by Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Ralph DeSio, who revealed agents have been prepared for Dorner to make a dash for the Mexican border since his rampage began.

He said: "This agency has been at the forefront of domestic use of drones by law enforcement. That's all I can say at the moment."

Dorner, who was fired from the LAPD in 2008 for lying about a fellow officer he accused of misconduct, has vowed to wreak revenge by "killing officers and their families".

In a chilling, 6,000 word "manifesto" on his Facebook page he has threatened to "bring warfare" to the LAPD and "utilise every bit of small arms training, demolition, ordinance and survival training I've been given."

Dorner, 33, who rose to the rank of lieutenant in the US Navy and served in Iraq before joining the LAPD, also ominously warned that he has shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles to "knock out" any helicopters used to pursue him.

Last night, Brian Levin, a psychologist and professor of criminal justice at Cal State University, San Bernardino, said: "We're talking about someone who basically perceives that a tremendous injustice has been done to him that took his life and identity.

"Now he is, quite literally, at war."

Dorner's rampage began last Sunday when he shot dead Monica Quan, 27, the daughter of a former LAPD captain, and her fiancé Keith Lawrence as they sat in their car outside their home in Irvine, California.

Three days later, he stole a boat at gunpoint from an 81-year-old man at a yacht club in San Diego, near the Mexican border. He abandoned the boat when he could not get its engine to start.

The following day, last Thursday, he was involved in a shoot-out with police in Cornona, 110 miles north of San Diego. The officers, one of whom was wounded, had been guarding one of his intended online targets.

Later that day, in nearby Riverside, he killed one police officer, whose name has not yet been revealed for security reasons, and wounded a second after opening fire on their car at a set of traffic lights.

As the manhunt for him broadened across numerous police jurisdictions, police mistakenly shot and wounded a mother and daughter delivering newspapers in a pick-up truck similar to Dorner's.

That incident, in the LA suburb of Torrance, was astonishingly followed two hours later by another in the same area, when police again opened fire on a pick-up. This time, there were no casualties. Hours later, Dorner's actual pick-up truck was found on a forest road near Big Bear City.

"He had torched it," a San Bernardino police spokesman said. "We assume it may have broken down before he set fire to it."

Since then, the huge manhunt for Dorner has focused on an area where hundreds of log cabins, both owned and rented out to tourists, are dotted around the mountainside.

"There is a strong possibility he is using an empty or abandoned one as a bolt-hole," the police spokesman added last night.

LAPD police chief Charlie Beck, who has pleaded on TV with Dorner to surrender, accepted he might be "difficult to find", adding: "He knows what he is doing. We trained him and he was also a member of the armed forces. It is extremely worrisome and scary."

Police have also pleaded with local residents not to try to mount a civilian vigilante force or try to aid in the hunt for the fugitive.

However, one Big Bear resident, Dennis Pollock, said: "I did 12 years in the Marine Corps. Give me a sniper rifle, some gear, and point me in his general direction and get out of my way."

Another local said: "We know every inch of this terrain and could be a real help to the cops, but all they've told us to do is stay at home and lock all our doors."

Last night, America's National Weather Centre warned that the hunt for Dorner could be further hampered by an expected snowfall of up to 6ins in the mountains. Wind gusts of up to 50mph are also forecast, creating an extreme wind-chill factor in the already freezing conditions.

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said: "To be honest, he could be anywhere right now. Torching his own vehicle could have been a diversion to throw us off track. Anything is possible with this man."

[Cain]

Dorner's a cop killer, so of course no expense will be spared in finding him.

Hell, the LAPD shot up a pickup truck because it looked like Dorner's:

About 5:20 a.m. in Torrance, two women were delivering the Los Angeles Times from their blue pickup when LAPD officers spotted the truck.

The police apparently mistook the truck for Dorner's and riddled it with bullets. The women, a mother and daughter team, were rushed to a hospital.

The mother, who is in her 70s, was shot in the shoulder. She was listed in stable condition. Her daughter was injured by shattered glass.

At least they're not deploying the Predator and Reaper drones...yet.  But this is the thin edge of the wedge.  People who kill police officers get about much sympathy as terrorists and pedophiles, so using systems on them which, in a few years time, will be used to track down car thieves and the like, makes sense.

Lots of police forces across the US have been investing in drones, so they're going to use them.

[Elder Iptuous]

I recall seeing an article a year or so regarding a quadrotor uav that they had bought for evaluation, but i've not read anything about what they have procured for operations.
Do we know what they're using?

[Cain]

Haven't found any info on that yet.

Would like to point out this article from May last year, though

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/05/drones_lapd_angeles_faa_police.php

So will the LAPD, a pioneer in the use of helicopters for law enforcement, soon be buzzing drones over your house as you smoke your favorite herb and become paranoid with fear?

Not likely, cops tell us:

The department doesn't really the see the advantage of using unmanned aircraft and has no plans to test them out, at least for now.

Meanwhile, I'm seeing Dorner being referred to as a "domestic terrorist" by the LAPD.  Which is a sick joke, given the LAPD's own track record in that area...not to mention an all too predictable cheapening of the term.  If anything, Dorner's vendetta is personal, not political.

[deadfong]

To Protect and Serve... unless, of course, there's a cop-killer on the loose, in which case we'll open fire on any vehicle that remotely resembles his truck without, I don't know, looking to see if he's there first.

[Cain]

LAPD's always been trigger (or truncheon) happy, especially where minorities are involved.  The whole Rampart affair, back to the shooting of unarmed Nation of Islam protestors and the Bloody Christmas scandal (the one made famous by LA Confidential) and even before.

That's why the whole domestic terrorism thing is such a sick joke.  Not excusing Dorner's crimes, but against the tally sheet of history, LAPD is by far the greater evil.

[Elder Iptuous]

To Protect and Serve... unless, of course, there's a cop-killer on the loose, in which case we'll open fire on any vehicle that remotely resembles his truck without, I don't know, looking to see if he's there first.

oh, come on.  you're being totally unfair!
it was a grey nissan titan, which looks very similar to the light blue toyota tacoma that they were looking for, so it's totally understandable that they would open fire in the hopes of getting their target.

[Bu🤠ns]

Is there any legitimacy in his manifesto? Aside from the Charlie Sheen comment, of course.

[Junkenstein]

I'm inclined to think there's something in it, finding it between the crazy is another matter.

Time to break out the 

Shit, I was looking for popcorn, but this is just as likely I guess.

[Juana]

Is there any legitimacy in his manifesto? Aside from the Charlie Sheen comment, of course.

I only read the Gawker synopsis, but a lot of it is rambling nonsense. He loves Chris Cristie and Hillary Clinton, for example. But he does list some of his complaints, some of which are valid (although I would have gone the way of a youtube channel exposing every bit of nasty info I had, myself).
You can read part one here. Part two is linked there, iirc.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

"Give me a sniper rifle point me in his general direction and get out of my way?" Im not sure if thats american for "i need my right to bear arms so i can despite my fellow citizens of their right to due process" or "im deeply uncomfortable with how incredibly small my penis is"

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Despite should be deprive. Econ ducking phone.

[Don Coyote]

"Give me a sniper rifle point me in his general direction and get out of my way?" Im not sure if thats american for "i need my right to bear arms so i can despite my fellow citizens of their right to due process" or "im deeply uncomfortable with how incredibly small my penis is"

I suspect it's that lone vigilante American hero trope. Probably with a little bit of tiny penis.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Its a really funny hypocrisy. My rights are more important than yours. Vigilantes are cool but lynch mobs arent.

[Junkenstein]

The new "Die hard" is out soon. Think he's seen a few too many trailers.