One of the largest manhunts in California’s history ended Feb. 12 when Los Angeles ex-police officer Christopher Dorner’s body was identified among charred remains of a burned down cabin in Big Bear Lake, Calif. “Medical examiners have positively identified the body of the renegade former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner, the man authorities say killed four people and wounded three others in a vendetta against his old comrades,” Matt Smith of CNN wrote. Along with the nation, members of the BYU-Hawaii ohana were shocked by the police officer becoming a killer. “You can tell he wasn’t well to do what he did. Sometimes people go bad,” said Roy Yamamoto, director of BYUH’s Campus Safety and Security. “I don’t know all of the issues in his personal life, but there might be something that may have caused him to go bad. That’s why we need to be aware of everything, including in our own area, in our own families sometimes.” Yamamoto urged staff and students to report incidents to help prevent situations like this. “He definitely had issues but he was also hypocritical. He was against all these bad people but he himself was a bad person,” said Jordon Furtado, a sophomore majoring in social work from Oahu. “Personally, since my father is a police officer, that kind of hit home that some police officer would go rouge and would kill other police officers,” he added. According to CNN, Dorner was fired from the Los Angeles Police force in 2009 for falsely claiming that a training officer whom he worked with kicked a subdued suspect. Dorner appealed his discharge in court but was unsuccessful in doing so. As a result, he launched a killing spree against the LAPD, targeting officers and their families. He wrote a 23-page manifesto describing his contempt for the LAPD and the higher-ups in the police force saying nothing has changed since the 1990 scandals. The first of the killings happened on Feb. 3. Monica Quan, the daughter of Dorner’s police representative and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence, were killed by Dorner. Police said he then killed Michael Crain, an officer from Riverside and wounded Cain’s partner in their patrol car on Feb. 7 in an apparent ambush. “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,” Dorner wrote in his manifesto. “I’m not an aspiring rapper, I’m not a gang member... I am an American by choice, I am a son, I am a brother, I am a military service member, I am a man who has lost complete faith in the system, when the system betrayed, slandered, and libeled me,” Dorner’s manifesto says. Dorner barricaded himself in a cabin in Big Bear, standing off with police in a shootout that ended when tear gas launched into the cabin sparked a fire, burning Dorner and causing his death.
Writer: Dylan Sage-Wilcox~Multimedia Journalist
