Dorner manhunt: Snow closes highway to Big Bear
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San Bernardino Highway 38, a primary route in and out of Big Bear -- where a massive search for fugitive ex-cop Christopher Jordan Dorner is being conducted -- was closed early Saturday morning in both directions because of heavy snow.
A SigAlert announced the closure between Angeles Oaks and Big Bear and suggested motorists use Highway 330 Highway as an alternate route. It was unclear when the highway would reopen.
The closure adds further complications to the days-long manhunt for Dorner, the 33-year-old former Los Angeles police officer suspected of killing three people. Law enforcement has been following tracks left in the snow and going door-to-door in search of him amid a storm that dumped at least eight inches of snow on the mountain Friday.
TIMELINE: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer
The snow slowed the search Friday but did not halt it, said Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Still, the aerial search was grounded overnight due to weather. The ground search was also suspended, but is scheduled to resume at 7 a.m. Saturday.
A press briefing scheduled for noon on Saturday was canceled late Friday night.
Although following tracks led only to frustration Friday, authorities were relieved by the break in a week of extraordinary interconnected violence.
Police say that Dorner has killed three people and injured others in a campaign to take revenge on those he blamed for his dismissal from the LAPD four years ago. Investigators are scrutinizing a conspiracy-laden manifesto that they believe was published on Dorner’s Facebook page.
In the screed, Dorner allegedly threatened ‘unconventional and asymmetrical warfare’ against police officers and their families, saying that he has no choice but to kill to reclaim his damaged reputation.
Police accuse him of killing the daughter of a retired LAPD captain and her fiance, who were found shot to death Sunday in a car in Irvine. While on the run, police said, Dorner shot three police officers, one fatally, in Riverside County. With warnings on radio and TV that an armed and deadly fugitive remained at large, police spent hours chasing down bogus leads and erroneous sightings.
FULL COVERAGE: Sweeping manhunt for ex-cop
Dorner was driving a white Lexus near Barstow. He was spotted entering the county jail in downtown Los Angeles. He was holed up in a hotel in San Diego or in a park in Norco or at a home next to the Barona Indian Reservation in San Diego County. None of those tips checked out, and authorities are considering false reporting charges against one person who was more prankster than tipster.
‘When you’re dealing with a case that’s getting this amount of press coverage, you’re going to get your share of bad information,’ said Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI, whose agents searched Dorner’s home in Las Vegas and are investigating a package that CNN received, apparently from Dorner, that made various threats.
Federal and local authorities also searched the home of his mother, Nancy Dorner, in La Palma, carrying out bags of potential evidence.
With the possibility of Dorner in the vicinity and the potential for violence, the Bear Valley Unified School District closed all its campuses Friday, and nervous residents locked their doors and made other preparations.
PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer
Roger Curtis, a retired carpenter who lives in Big Bear, said he was watching the manhunt on TV when a car alarm sounded.
‘I got the guns and loaded them,’ he said.
Many residents suspect that Dorner high-tailed it out of the area, but others believe he could be hunkered down in one of many vacant, half-hidden cabins.
Authorities can only speculate about Dorner’s familiarity with the terrain and preparedness to brave a winter storm. Nancy Dorner owns property about 35 miles away in Arrowbear Lake, according to county records. Dorner, who was trained as a police officer and a Navy Reserve officer, learned to hunt in the Utah wilderness as a college student.
The National Weather Service predicts that temperatures will plunge to 16 degrees early Saturday, with the wind chill making it equivalent to 6 below zero.
ALSO:
LAPD chief to fugitive former cop: ‘No one else needs to die’
O.C. killings: Suspect blamed victim’s father in firing from LAPD
Facebook pages with anti-police sentiments support fugitive ex-cop
--Phil Willon, Joseph Serna, Kenneth R. Weiss and Matt Stevens
Photo: CHP officers search a vehicle Friday near Big Bear Lake. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press.
