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Dorner manhunt: Twin Towers jail lockdown lifted

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Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said Friday they lifted a lockdown at the Twin Towers jail facilities after determining that a reported sighting of fugitive ex-cop Christopher Jordan Dorner was not credible.

Earlier in the day, a jail employee reported seeing someone resembling Dorner entering the building.

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Deputies from the Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, swooped down on the facility and surrounded the area as authorities worked to determine who actually was inside the sprawling jail.

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Shortly before 11:20 a.m., department spokesman Steve Whitmore said authorities determined that there was no threat. He said the jails were locked down and nearby streets closed ‘out of a preponderance of caution.’

Earlier Friday, rumors were flying that Dorner, 33, a former LAPD officer wanted in connection with three killings, was in Barstow and the San Diego area. Those reports turned out to be untrue, authorities said.

Given the high-profile nature of the massive manhunt for Dorner, coupled with the instant flow of information on social media, law enforcement authorities are going to find themselves struggling to chase down leads that go nowhere.

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‘When you’re dealing with a case that’s getting this amount of press coverage nationally ... you’re going to get your share of bad information,’ said Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI office in Los Angeles, which is involved with the investigation.

‘As we know,’ she said, ‘there are no shortage of bad hoaxes perpetrated on the Internet.’

Still, law enforcement authorities are obligated to follow every lead. Dorner has been described as ‘armed and extremely dangerous,’ and officials are pursuing every possibility in their effort to track him down.

‘There have been countless cases where a lead that appears to be bad breaks the case,’ Eimiller said.

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-- Robert Lopez

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