Christopher Dorner’s charred body is positively identified

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San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials have positively identified the charred remains found in a mountain cabin Tuesday as being the body of Christopher Dorner.

Officials said they made the identification using dental records during the autopsy.

The announcement brings a formal end to the epic manhunt for Dorner, who was accused of killing four people, including two law enforcement officers. He was killed at the end of a hours-long standoff in a cabin near Big Bear on Tuesday afternoon.

PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

SWAT officers in the cabin standoff decided to use highly flammable “hot gas” canisters as a last resort after other efforts to persuade Dorner to surrender failed, according to law enforcement sources.

Officers made the decision to use the canisters, which caused the cabin to catch fire, as the sun was setting Tuesday and authorities worried about dealing with Dorner at night in the remote Big Bear area, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. Dorner had continued to fire on officers, and they feared more deputies would be hurt or killed, they added.

TIMELINE: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

Authorities had chased Dorner into the cabin on Seven Oaks Road on Tuesday afternoon amid a massive gun battle in which one San Bernardino County deputy was killed and another seriously wounded. Law enforcement officers lobbed conventional tear gas into the cabin, but when Dorner failed to emerge they used CS gas canisters, a more intense weapon known to start fires, and sent in a demolition vehicle. Dorner is believe to have died inside, though it is unclear if the fire caused his death.

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said deputies did not purposely burn down the cabin. He said they deployed the CS canisters after they were left with no other options. INTERACTIVE MAP: Searching for suspected shooter

“I can tell you it was not on purpose,” he said. “We did not intentionally burn down that cabin to get Mr. Dorner out.”

McMahon praised the deputies involved in the standoff. “It was like a war zone, and our deputies continued to go in the area .... Our deputies are true heroes.”

Dorner, an ex-LAPD officer embittered by his firing in 2009, killed the daughter of a retired LAPD captain, her fiance and two law officers during a nine-day rampage that began in Irvine, police say.

FULL COVERAGE: Sweeping manhunt for ex-cop

In Riverside on Wednesday, police motorcycles led a lengthy procession toward a service for Michael Crain, the slain Riverside officer.

Mary Ann Taylor, who lives down the street from the Grove Community Church where the service was held, stood with her twin granddaughters and watched as police cars filed past with flashing lights.

“Put your hands over your hearts. Show some respect for them,” Taylor told the girls, adding: “I think all of us feel the sadness of the last few days.”

Big Bear Lake Mayor Jay Obernolte said he was relieved that the manhunt was over. The area was “freed of the sense of being a community that is not safe because there is a cop-killer hiding in our little mountain town.”

ALSO:

Christopher Dorner hostages: ‘He tried to calm us down’

Dorner case: Who, if anyone, will get $1-million reward is unclear

Dorner case: Mother says family does not condone her son’s actions

-- Andrew Blankstein, Phil Willon and Rong-Gong Lin II