generalspeaking

 A Vacant Rental Condo

Osama bin Laden lived quietly for years with his family in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, while he was the sought-after criminal and notorious al-Qaeda chief with a million-dollar bounty on his capture. Not far from bin-Laden's compound was another compound, this one an elite Pakistani military training centre. Among bin-Laden's neighbours were top-ranking military officers. All heatedly denied knowing of his residence among them.

When the successful night-time raid by Navy SEALS was concluded, the Government of Pakistan howled with outrage that their sovereignty, their airspace, their dignity, their rights had been unlawfully abridged by the United States of America whose agents had committed an unforgivably violent act on their soil. And no, no one in the Pakistan administration, nor their military, let alone their secret service had any knowledge of bin-Laden's presence on Pakistani soil.

In the United States the Los Angeles Police Department had set up a command centre at the perimeter of the San Bernardino National Forest. They were desperately attempting to find clues respecting the whereabouts of a killer, one of their own, in a manner of speaking. He had been a member of the LAPD before being dismissed in disgrace when he was found guilty of misconduct. Said misconduct claiming a fellow officer had abused a mentally-impaired prisoner.

The fugitive - for that is what he had become, five years after leaving the Police Force - made every effort to evade capture. He was suspected, logically enough, given the circumstances, his own public declarations and witness identification of the assailant, of having killed a young couple, the woman of whom was the daughter of a lawyer who defended him before the police commission, but who failed to prove his innocence of the charge.

He had determined to seek revenge on those he believed had wronged him, had taken away his dignity, his respected name, his profession, and his future. This was a man who deplored the easy acquisition of automatic firearms in the country, feeling they should be made illegal, yet was in possession of his own which he used to kill a police officer after the young couple, and wound several others.

While police were frantically searching for any signs of his whereabouts, Chris Dorner had ensconced himself within a vacation condo. And that condo was literally across the street from the police command centre. While police managed four days of searching to scour the woods close by with bloodhounds, snowmobiles and heat-seeking helicopters, Mr. Dornan watched their activities.

"I figured he was back in the woods somewhere, but the guy was right across the street", said Big Bear Lake resident Bruce Doucett. "All I can say is that it's a bit unnerving." 

Mr. Dorner for reasons of his own, declined to remain where he was, undetected, a spectator of the LAPD's activities to search out his whereabouts.  He emerged from the unsuspected safety of that condo and made his way into the forest where as the SWAT teams searched hundreds of vacant cabins, he took possession of a car and gained the attention of the police then was spotted by officers with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A chase ensued, and he escaped, crashing the car. Then hijacked a truck from a Boy Scout leader. "He had an assault, sniper-type rifle. He had a big ballistic vest on ... he was very calm", said Rick Heltebrake to whom Mr. Dorner had said "I don't want to hurt you. Just get out and start walking, and take  your dog." And then another two Fish and Wildlife wardens spotted him and had their vehicle riddled with bullets.

Soon afterward he barricaded himself inside a rental cabin. And then came a four-hour stand-off. During which another two police were shot, one fatally.  "It was like a war zone. Our deputies continued to go in to that area and tried to neutralize and stop the threat. The rounds kept coming but the deputies didn't give up Our deputy sheriffs are some true heroes" - who tossed tear gas into the cabin, and demolished the walls with a specialized vehicle.

Soon afterward a single shot and then what was left of that rental cabin was aflame. And those flames neutralized the fugitive...for an officer ordered colleagues to "burn it down", since "we're gonna go forward with the plan, with the burn". And Mr. Dorner is no longer a threat to his former colleagues in the Los Angeles Police Department, nor their families.

And yet another dread legend was born.

Labels: Armaments, Chaos, Crime, Psychopathy, United States

posted by Pieface @ Friday, February 15, 2013