FINAL TUESDAY UPDATE 11:00 pm: San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept says investigators have located charred human remains within the cabin. Forensic ID comes next. And so the tragic and exhausting day for law enforcement and others ends, and likely this is the end of the story for Christopher Dorner.
More, no doubt, shortly. The updates below show the evening’s confusion. For the unfolding of Tuesday’s events in Big Bear, see the earlier post below this one.
For a complete narrative, the LA Times team has the best coverage I’ve seen.
AN EVENING OF CONFUSION…NEWS WHIPLASH…AND MEDIA ERRORS—AS NEWSPAPER HEADLINES WERE POSTED THEN HASTILY YANKED DOWN. WLA’S CHANGING UPDATES POSTED BELOW ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE JITTERY TONE OF THE LATE AFTERNOON, EARLY EVENING COVERAGE.
UPDATE 1: UH, THE CONFIRMATION IS…. NO CONFIRMATION At first everyone reported a body was found and ID’d then all that vanished.
UPDATE 2: NEVERMIND: Yikes. LAPD’s Andy Smith says no body has been located and brought out, so no body has been ID’d. #DisinformationAbides.
UPDATE 3: The LA Times reports that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said it was really, really almost but not really for sure certain that Dorner is dead. “People on the scene are as confident as they can be without seeing the body that it is Dorner inside,” Beck said.
UPDATE 4: The wounded San Bernardino deputy will reportedly need several surgeries. This has been a sad and costly day.
UPDATE 5: Fish and Wildlife officers played a major role in Dorner drama.
EARLIER THIS EVENING
The report is: whoever is inside the cabin [see live blogging post below], was not taken out of that structure, alive, dead or wounded.
It is assumed that Dorner was inside, that a single gunshot was heard as the structure began to burn, and that Christopher Dorner is dead.
None of this is confirmed.
So we wait. And, while we wait, we mourn the four people—two of them law enforcement officers—killed in this whole terrible and tragic mess.
WLA is signing off to watch POTUS deliver the State of the Union address.
For additional reporting on the Dorner issue, the LA Times is doing a fine job. The Daily News has some good material too.
We’ll have deeper thoughts on the matter Thursday morning.