Christopher Dorner was a man full of anger. Fired from the police force, discharged from the Navy Reserve, he snapped. He first killed the daughter of a man involved in his firing, then headed to San Diego. To try to flee the country? To plant evidence to distract investigators? He next headed north on a collision course with police in the Inland area. To kill more targets? To disappear? Some questions will never be answered.
THE RAMPAGE
FEB 3
1. Newly engaged couple Monica Quan, a women’s basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton, and Keith Lawrence, a public safety officer at USC, are found shot to death in the parking garage of their Irvine condo. Quan was the daughter of retired Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Randal Quan, who represented Dorner in his disciplinary hearings.
FEB. 4
Dorner posts a manifesto on his Facebook page appearing to take responsibility for the killings. “I know most of you who personally know me are in disbelief to hear from media reports that I am suspected of committing such horrendous murders and have taken drastic and shocking actions in the last couple of days.” He blames a culture of racism at the LAPD for ending his career, and vows “unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty … You will now live the life of the prey.”
FEB. 6
Detectives investigating Quan’s link to Dorner find the manifesto and alert the LAPD, which immediately mobilizes protection details across Southern California to about 50 potential targets named by Dorner.
2. Dorner ties up an 81-year-old man at the Southwestern Yacht Club in San Diego and tries to steal his boat but cannot get the engine to start. Dorner flees.
FEB. 7
3. About 1 a.m.: Lee McDaniel, who had seen Dorner on the news the previous night, recognizes him at a gas station just south of Corona. Both leave, and McDaniel flags down two LAPD officers, who were on their way to protect a target nearby. Dorner drives by, and the officers follow his gray Nissan Titan onto the northbound 15 Freeway.
4. About 1:20 a.m.: Dorner exits at Magnolia Avenue in Corona and opens fire, grazing one officer in the forehead and immobilizing the patrol car. Their LAPD radio is out of range; one flags down a passing motorist to borrow a cellphone and the other retrieves his own phone to call 911.
5. 1:33 a.m.: Riverside police Officers Michael Crain and Andrew Tachias are sitting in their patrol car at a red light at Arlington and Magnolia avenues when Dorner stops across the intersection from them. He drives through the red light, firing at least 13 shots into the patrol car across the hood of another vehicle, then continues driving north, briefly pursued by the other vehicle. Crain dies almost immediately. Tachias is wounded so severely he cannot move his arms. Taxi driver Karam Kaoud stops and uses the police radio to call for help.
THE MANHUNT
FEB. 7
6. 9:38 a.m.: Dorner’s Nissan Titan is found burning in the middle of a snowy U.S. Forest Service dirt road about a mile off Club View Drive in Big Bear Lake. It had a broken axle. Rifles and camping gear reportedly were found inside. An army of law enforcement officers arrives in the mountains.
FEB. 8-11
7. During a manhunt directed from a command post in the Bear Mountain ski resort parking lot, SWAT teams go door-to-door, checking cabins and speaking with residents. Helicopters equipped with thermal and infrared technology search from the sky. No trace of Dorner is found. Thousands of tips pour in, but none bear out. Anxiety across Southern California mounts as law enforcement officers and civilians worry about if or where the cop-killer will resurface. A community of Dorner sympathizers emerges, angering many others. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says he will reexamine the allegations of brutality and racism Dorner raised. A $1 million reward is offered for information that leads to Dorner’s arrest and conviction. As the days go by with no leads, mountain residents and visitors begin to wonder if Dorner is still in their vicinity, or is even still alive.
THE STANDOFF
FEB. 12
8. About noon: Jim and Karen Reynolds, who own the Mountain Vista Resort on Club View Drive in Big Bear, enter Condo 203 and encounter Dorner, who appears to have been inside the unit for several days. He promises not to kill them, ties them up and takes the keys to their maroon Nissan SUV. Karen Reynolds frees her ties enough to get to her cellphone and call 911 at 12:23 p.m. Southern California’s law enforcement community mobilizes.
9. About 12:45 p.m.: A 25-mile drive from the Reynolds’ condo, a maroon Nissan SUV headed down Highway 38 passes sheriff’s deputies and Fish and Wildlife wardens. Dorner is tailgating two school buses in an apparent attempt to keep officers from laying out a spike strip. The wardens chase the SUV until it turns off the highway onto the winding Glass Road. Dorner evades the wardens but crashes into a snowbank. He leaves the car, leaving a silenced sniper rifle in the backseat.
10. About 1 p.m.: Nearby, Dorner encounters Boy Scout camp caretaker Rick Heltebrake, points a rifle at him and calmly asks for Heltebrake’s white Dodge pickup. Within seconds of the carjacking, Fish and Wildlife wardens in two trucks turn down Glass Road. Dorner and the wardens exchange gunfire as they pass, and the Dodge disappears around a curve. Dorner ditches the truck in a ravine and takes cover in a cabin on Seven Oaks Road. The horde of arriving officers don’t know where he is until he starts firing at them.
11. 1:25 p.m.: Calls of “officer down” start transmitting over the police radios as Deputy Alex Collins then Detective Jeremiah MacKay are hit. MacKay dies instantly. Collins lies bleeding in the “kill zone” for several harrowing minutes until deputies can create a tear gas smoke screen and drag him and MacKay out. The standoff continues for several hours as officers surround the cabin. Deputies in an armored vehicle lob in canisters of cold tear gas, but Dorner does not surrender.
Shortly before 4 p.m.: Dorner begins setting off green smoke grenades. Several minutes later, commanders decide to start using pyrotechnic tear gas canisters, known as “burners” because they can cause fires.
4:20 p.m.: As flames begin to spread and authorities prepare for Dorner to run out of the cabin, a single gunshot is heard from inside. No attempt is made to put out the fire, which begins setting off ammunition in the cabin. Before the smoldering ruins are even cool enough to enter, false rumors begin to swirl that Dorner’s body has been identified.
EPILOGUE
FEB. 13
Riverside police Officer Michael Crain is laid to rest at Riverside National Cemetery after an emotional funeral at The Grove Community Church in Riverside, an event that highlighted Crain’s love for his children, chocolate and rock ’n’ roll.
FEB. 14-15
To the relief of his threatened targets, the charred remains found in the basement of the burned cabin are confirmed through dental records as Dorner’s. Authorities announce the next day that an autopsy concluded he died of a self-inflicted bullet wound.
FEB. 21
Thousands of law enforcement officers from across the region and the nation, as well as civilians paying their respects, attend the funeral of San Bernardino County sheriff’s Detective Jeremiah MacKay at San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore.
Related links
Christopher Dorner: Following a vengeance-driven madman’s killing spree through Southern California 5 years later
‘Let’s move on:’ 10 years after Christopher Dorner siege in San Bernardino Mountains memories wane
The Christopher Dorner shootout showed us the best and worst of humanity
Chaos and confusion: Standing in the footsteps of Christoper Dorner and his victims 5 years later
DORNER RAMPAGE: LAPD badge found on badly burned body