Trail Goes Cold - Dorner Still on the Run

The website TMZ.com reported Monday it had a video which showed the  Christopher  Dorner buying scuba equipment on Feb. 1, two days before the rampage began.  The footage shows a man  identified as Dorner carrying two small, yellow scuba tanks and a large, black scuba tank inside the Sports Chalet store in Torrance, Calif.

In the video, Dorner, who is a former member of a Naval undersea warfare unit, can be seen laughing while talking with the cashier. He paid cash. The tape showed Dorner arriving at the store at 9:21 p.m. and leaving at 9:38 p.m., about 48 hours before the bodies of the young couple, Monica Quan, 28, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, 27, were found in Irvine, Calif.

The search for scuba gear is a possible indication Dorner may have been planning to make an underwater escape — or a frogman-like attack. He tried to steal a boat from an 81-year-old man at a San Diego marina on Feb. 7, but failed because a rope became entangled in the vessel’s propeller, authorities said.

 

 The most wanted fugitive in America was formally charged Monday with murdering a Riverside, Calif. cop in a drive-by ambush that could earn him the death penalty, authorities said. The 33-year-old revenge-driven ex-cop was still at large as of early Tuesday, despite a dragnet from one end of California to the other, and heightened traffic at crossings along the border with Mexico. Dorner's whereabouts remain unknown as the military marksman and trained law enforcement officer eludes authorities.

Dorner, hell-bent on avenging perceived wrongs that led to his dismissal at the Los Angeles Police Department, is suspected of killing a young couple on Jan. 3. The woman was the daughter of a police official who represented him before he was sacked.

 

Riverside County District Attorney Paul Zellerbach said Monday that special circumstance allegations have been lodged against Dorner in last Thursday’s Riverside cop killing that could potentially make it a death penalty case. Authorities said they have now obtained a no-bail arrest warrant, which allows Dorner to be apprehended anywhere.

Dorner was also charged with attempted murder of three other lawmen: a second Riverside cop, and two LAPD officers who were guarding one of the many law enforcement officials Dorner labeled as targets in a twisted manifesto. More than 700 tips spurred by a $1 million reward offered Sunday are being investigated as part of the manhunt, but false sightings have proven to be the norm in recent days.

U.S. border inspectors check vehicles approaching the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro on Sunday to prevent ex-LAPD cop Christopher Dorner, wanted for murder, from fleeing the country.

The last confirmed link to Dorner came on Thursday, when his burned-out pickup truck was found on a mountain road in Big Bear, Calif., prompting a police search of the rugged, snow covered terrain.
But it is possible the truck was a diversion, and it is feared that Dorner may try to slip into Mexico.
As authorities sought to prevent Dorner from skipping the country, vehicle inspections were ramped up at points along the border with Mexico, causing delays Monday at San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing into Tijuana.