02/07/2013

Fatigue-clad officers scoured the mountainous terrain near Big Bear after a burning pickup truck was found that may belong to a fugitive ex-Los Angeles police officer wanted in connection with a series of shootings that have left three people dead and two wounded.

The mountain community locked down schools and closed the nearby Bear Mountain Resort as television helicopters hovered overhead, showing footage of a SWAT team walking through the woods, rifles drawn.

A law enforcement source told The Times that the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department had deployed a team to the site of the truck as a precaution. Investigators were searching for a vehicle identification number on the charred truck to see if it belonged to the suspect, Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33.

"We are still trying to identify who that vehicle belongs to," San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller told The Times.

But she said the agency had dispatched extra personnel to patrol the mountain community as "a safety precaution."

There had been multiple reported sightings in the Big Bear area on Thursday of Dorner's truck, sources said. Dorner was last seen wearing military fatigues and has a military ID. Coincidentally, at the Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski resorts, customers who wore their military uniforms on Thursday could purchase a discounted $38 lift ticket.

Sean Jacques, director of loss prevention for Big Bear Mountain Resorts, said that after the burning truck was discovered on a forest service road, local law enforcement told resort officials to keep an eye out for Dorner and provided a description of the suspect.

"They said maintain vigilance," he said.

Several law enforcement agencies are involved in the massive manhunt for Dorner and alerts have been issued all across California and in Nevada. The Los Angeles Police Department had dispatched units across the region to protect at least 40 officers and others named in a rambling online manifesto that law enforcement officials attribute to Dorner.

Via LATimes