Carjacking victim: Christopher Dorner told me "I don't want to hurt you"
Richard Heltebrake, who works as a ranger for the Boy Scouts of America camp, speaks about his ordeal when multiple murder suspect and former Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner carjacked his truck on February 13, 2013 in Redlands, California. The 61-year-old Heltebrake said Dorner carjacked his truck before the fugitive allegedly killed a sheriff's deputy and barricaded himself inside a Big Bear cabin. Dorner, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer and Navy Reserve veteran, is wanted in connection with the deaths of an Irvine couple and a Riverside police officer. / Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
BIG BEAR, Calif. A 61-year-old man said multiple-murder suspect Christopher Dorner carjacked his truck before the fugitive allegedly killed a sheriff's deputy and barricaded himself inside a Big Bear cabin for several hours, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Richard Heltebrake was driving his silver truck near where he worked at a Boy Scout camp when he said the 33-year-old ex-Los Angeles police officer confronted him.
Carjack victim on encounter with ex-cop
"Christopher Dorner jumped out in front of my truck. He apparently had crashed whatever vehicle he was driving, and he stopped me at gunpoint," Heltebrake said.
Heltebrake, who was riding with his Dalmatian, told CBS Los Angeles station KCAL-TV that he immediately stopped his pickup and raised his hands.
"He said, 'I don't want to hurt you. Just get out and start walking up the road and take your dog with you,'" Heltebrake said.
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The 61-year-old Boy Scout leader and former reserve police officer started to walk away when gunfire erupted.
"Ten seconds later, there were a bunch of gunshots, which apparently were the deputies that were coming up the road right behind me," said Heltebrake. "I started running through the snow and got behind a tree for some cover, and I called my deputy friend and told him what had just happened."
Heltebrake said he would "absolutely" pursue the million-dollar reward for Dorner's capture.
Dorner standoff ends in shootout, fire
It's not yet confirmed if the charred remains sheriff's deputies said were found inside a burned-out cabin Tuesday near Big Bear Lake are Dorner's, CBS News correspondent Carter Evans reports. The cabin went up in flames after an intense shootout.
Early Tuesday, two cleaning ladies at a condominium in Big Bear discovered a man they say looked like Dorner. He took them hostage, tied them up and tried to escape, stealing a pair of vehicles — one of them Heltebrake's — along the way.
California Fish and Wildlife Lt. Patrick Foy told The Associated Press that the housekeepers surprised Dorner when they showed up and that one of the women eventually managed to break free and called 911.
Acting on reports of a carjacking, law enforcement officials quickly tracked the man accused of targeting police officers and their families.
"The suspect that stole the vehicle matched the description. He crashed the car and then took off into the forest," San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.
As he barricaded himself in an empty cabin, the man believed to be Dorner fired a .50-caliber sniper rifle, shooting two deputies, killing one of them.
Gun battle with wanted ex-cop - caught on tape
Following tactical teams, CBS News' crew was caught in the middle of a second firefight. Asked on "CBS This Morning" Wednesday how Evans was able to get so close to the firefight, he said he and his crew received a tip on where to find some police teams searching for Dorner and then heard the carjacking reports.
"At that point we started following those search teams, and they jumped out of their cars with their rifles drawn and started firing, and only then did we really realize what we rolled up on," Evans said.
At one point, the man believed to be Dorner tried to escape by throwing a smoke grenade at officers. Police also deployed smoke grenades, setting up a screen so the wounded could be evacuated.
The resort town of Big Bear had been the focus of the manhunt since last Thursday, when a burned-out truck belonging to Dorner was found in the area, along with weapons, survival gear and a gas mask. As the media descended on the town and SWAT teams searched door to door, police now believe Dorner was hiding in plain sight in an unoccupied condo just across the road from their command post.
Bratton: Dorner's "motivations are clear"
On "CBS This Morning," CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, who once headed the Los Angeles Police Department's Major Crimes Division, reported that the cabin had apparently been empty for some time and it remained unclear whether Dorner had been hiding in it for hours or days.
The search for Dorner had gone on for several days without a confirmed sighting of the suspect. That prompted former LAPD Chief William Bratton, whose name was on a hit list included in Dorner's online manifesto, to meet Tuesday afternoon with the threat-assessment unit in the New York Police Department's Intelligence Division Tuesday afternoon, he said on "CBS This Morning" Wednesday.
"My company was starting to get a little nervous about the idea that he had not been seen for several days, would have had time to begun to move around, so in response to their concerns they had just begun a threat-assessment process here in the event that there was a sighting in this area," Bratton said.
In Los Angeles, 50 protection details had guarded Dorner's possible targets. In his online rant, Dorner pledged revenge against those he says were responsible for his being fired from the LAPD, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.
Dorner claims he was wrongly dismissed when he complained his training officer had used excessive force. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had reopened the case, "not to appease him but to make sure that the community understands that we're transparent and we value fairness," Beck said.
Exclusive: Close-up footage of Christopher Dorner cabin in flames
In a Wednesday morning briefing, LAPD spokesman Lt. Andy Neiman said "approximately a dozen or so" of the protection details would continue until the department and the people being protected felt safe.
"We still have some individuals in this department who are still in great fear," Neiman told reporters. "When your life and the lives of your family are placed in jeopardy and threatened with death, that's quite something to deal with."
Neiman said LAPD staff at police headquarters listened on the Internet to police radio communications coming from San Bernardino during Tuesday's shootout, describing what they heard as "horrifying."
"To listen to that firefight and to hear those words, 'officer down,' is the most gut-wrenching experience that you can have as a police officer because you know what that means," Neiman said.
Neiman also said the department would continue re-examining Dorner's termination, describing it as "a total separate issue."
Late Tuesday, heavily armed officers finally cornered their suspect. They fired tear gas and deployed vehicles to rip down the house where he was holed up. Then, a single gunshot from inside. Smoke and flames soon poured from the cabin.
Multiple rounds of exploding ammunition could be heard in the crackle of the fire, but no one was ever seen running from the burning building.
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Something smells funny here and sure is not DORNER!
Well, he does smell like burnt BBQ. So. . . .
"Typical black mentality" is exactly the type of comment that speaks to racism. If you are not a member of a minority, then you have no clue as to the emotional impact of comments like yours.
The LAPD may be racist and corrupt. Absolute possibilities. But in no event does this excuse Dorner's actions.
Personally, I believe that the $1,000,000 reward money should be split by the families of the LAPD officers who both died and/or sustained life threatening injuries. They are the true victims.
It is easy for us to say that we need to control the types of guns that are getting in to the hands of the general public out there. But let's not forget what we have here as well.
The gun control debate needs to discuss not only the types of arms that are available (yes, we set aside the fact that bad people get a hold of bad weapons no matter what the rules are for another discussion) but the discussion should also include mental health.
Mental health and gun control is not a surprise to this discussion and the point the republicans are bringing in to the mix in order to protect their NRA interests. That's fine. But taking a look at this situation, we are brought face-to-face with an argument that I have been stating for years....that law enforcement members need to be evaluated consistently, and regularly so that their mental health is kept in check.
This is not the first time we have seen people with the authority to carry guns has gone off on to this path. It is naive to think that we should allow anyone who carries a gun for the protection of the people to be able to carry that gun without checks and balances.
Doctors, lawyers, teachers (all individuals that do not necessarily carry a weapon) are required to conduct ongoing education and practice policies in order to retain their licenses. How can we possibly believe that a young person can go through an academy once in their lives at the beginning of their careers and remain the same stable, level headed (in most cases) individual that was evaluated at that time for the next 20+ years?
Life happens to these individuals just as it does for the rest of us. Divorces, family disagreements, work place situations, frustrations in society....all happen in the same way at the same rate. Their academy training does not make them immune to the emotion of these situations, nor train them to handle those situations as they occur later in life any better than the rest of us.
In the mix of the gun control issue, the government needs to address this situation with just as much importance, gravity, and regard as they would Columbine, Newton, or any movie theater in the country. This man could have taken things "to the next level" and targeted general public.
Doesn't it make sense for people in this position to have the same standards like the professionals and others named above? Doesn't it make sense that either annually, or every three years (and when a major life event happens for them) that they go through a psychological evaluation and appraisal?
This guy did not get to the point that he was at over night. This was a consistent build up within him from things that were occurring at work. Even some of his colleagues (now) say that they watched him change in attitude and demeanor.
The discussion we need to have here is much larger than cutting back types of guns offered the public or general public health. It needs to be comprehensive. But let's face it...the government doesn't want to be thorough.