California coroner releases report on fugitive ex-policeman

[October 04, 2014]  (Reuters) - A former Los Angeles police officer who eluded authorities for days following a grudge-driven killing spree fatally shot himself in the basement of a burning cabin, a coroner report released on Friday said.

Christopher Dorner, the 33-year-old former Los Angeles Police Department officer who killed four people in a vendetta against the police force, ended a firefight with police last February in the mountain community of Big Bear by shooting himself in the head, the report from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office confirmed.

Dorner's suicide ended a days-long manhunt police launched after finding a manifesto he posted on Facebook, where he blamed a retired police captain for his 2008 dismissal from the force and vowed revenge. During his spree, Dorner killed the captain's daughter, her fiancée, and two additional officers.
 

A copy of the coroner's report, published online by the Los Angeles Times, said police lobbed pyrotechnic gas inside the mountain cabin Dorner holed up in during the gun battle, starting a fire inside.

As the cabin burned, police heard a single gunshot and then stopped seeing movement inside, the report said.

Dorner, whose body was positively identified later through dental matching, was found lying in the basement of the collapsed building wearing a white necklace adorned with a handcuff key, the report said.

Earlier this year, police officials said eight officers broke department policy when they opened fire on two women during the manhunt after mistaking their truck for one driven by the rogue ex-cop.

One woman was shot twice in the back and her adult daughter was wounded by flying debris. Last year, they received a $4.2 million settlement from the city.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco)

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