Deputy knocked, Dorner hid

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner hid in a mountain condominium as a door-to-door manhunt took place outside and, after he finally made his break, apparently killed himself with a gunshot wound to the head amid a fierce gunbattle with police.

Dorner is believed to have entered the condo through an unlocked door sometime Feb. 7, soon after he arrived in the area of Big Bear Lake after killing three people. He then locked the door and stayed hunkered down for six days until the condo’s owners came to clean it, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Friday.

Soon after he arrived in the mountain resort area 80 miles east of Los Angeles, deputies knocked on the door but left when they found the door locked and no sign of a break-in, McMahon said.

“Our deputy knocked on that door and did not get an answer, and in hindsight it’s probably a good thing that he did not answer based on his actions before and after that event,” the sheriff said of Dorner.

When the owners arrived, he tied them up and fled in their car, leading to a chase, a shootout that killed a sheriff’s deputy and, ultimately, Dorner, who died in a cabin where he barricaded himself for his last stand.

Police initially weren’t sure if Dorner was killed by one of their bullets or by a fire that engulfed the cabin as they fired tear gas inside. Now they believe he died by his own hand as the cabin was going up in flames.

“The information that we have right now seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner’s life was self-inflicted,” sheriff’s Capt. Kevin Lacy told a news conference.

Lacy, McMahon and others described a fierce firefight with bullets whizzing through trees and Dorner firing on officers every time they tried to get to their wounded comrades.

Authorities said he equipped his weapon with a flash suppressor, masking the sound of the gunfire and the location it was coming from as he hit two of the first deputies to arrive.

“Our officers had not even pulled their guns out at that point and were not prepared to engage anybody and they were ambushed,” McMahon said.

Amid the barrage of bullets, authorities sent tear gas canisters into the cabin and it erupted in flames. After the crack of the single gunshot, investigators only heard ammunition exploding in the fire, and they later found Dorner’s remains.