Just before dawn, police officers wounded two women when they opened fire on a pickup truck resembling the one driven by ex-LAPD officer Chris Dorner. Now they finally have the right vehicle, but not the man who allegedly killed a young couple and one police officer as revenge for being fired from the LAPD. On Thursday afternoon, the massive manhunt for Dormer focused in on Big Bear Lake, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles, when Dormer’s truck was found in flames on the side of the mountain. Several hours later, CNN revealed that in addition to sharing messages for various celebrities in his online manifesto, Dorner also sent a package to Anderson Cooper’s CNN office in New York, which contained a DVD and a coin with three bullet holes.
The package was opened by Cooper’s assistant on February 1 and no one else at the network was aware of its existence until today. It was quickly turned over to investigators, but CNN described what it contained:
Inside was a hand-labeled DVD, accompanied by a yellow Post-it note reading, in part, “I never lied” — apparently in reference to his 2008 dismissal from the LAPD.
The package also contained a coin wrapped in duct tape. The tape bears the hand-written inscription: “Thanks, but no thanks, Will Bratton.” It also had letters that may be read as “IMOA”, which could be a commonly used Internet abbreviation for “Imagine a More Open America,” or possibly “1 MOA,” which means one minute of angle, perhaps implying Dorner was notably accurate with a firearm.
The coin is a souvenir medallion from former LAPD Chief William Bratton, who headed the department when Dorner was dismissed.
Police are still analyzing the package and the truck, though it doesn’t appear that either provided any clues about Dorner’s whereabouts. Police found tracks in the snow leading away from the vehicle, but they didn’t lead to Dorner. ABC News reports that officials from several departments are using teams of dogs to comb the area, and going door-to-door to search cabins on the mountain. San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon says they’ll keep hunting for Dorner as long as they can, but a snowstorm is headed to the area and, “He could be anywhere at this point.”
