Integrity VS Murder

Christopher Dorner came into the world with one word that would shape his life for better and for worse: integrity. Born in the summer of 1979, he grew up in California and later graduated from Southern Utah University. Those who knew him described him as a quiet but sweet person, friendly and loyal. He was athletic and a team player. He grew up playing sports and even played on the university’s football team while he was studying, but life for Christopher was not without its hardships.

He later admitted that he’d been the only African American student in all of his classes from first grade to seventh grade and, as we all know, children can be cruel to anyone who's different. Christopher claimed that he was often targeted and bullied because of his race and the after-effects of this racial abuse were something that would stick with him for the rest of his life.

Writing online years later, Christopher said that he wasn’t a “hoodlum”, “a gangster” or an “aspiring rapper.” In fact, Christopher knew what he wanted to be early on in life and it was far from what he believed the media and his classmates painted him as. When he was still a teenager, Christopher joined his local police department’s youth program and after attending university, he jumped right back into his chosen career.

He officially began his police training at the academy, but stopped in 2002 when he was commissioned as a United States Navy Reserve. He led a security unit at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada before being deployed to Bahrain for almost three years of service. When Christopher was honorably discharged in 2013, he’d risen to the rank of lieutenant and had received a Navy Rifle Marksmanship Ribbon and a Navy Pistol Shot Ribbon for his expertise in firearms. 

But when Christopher wasn’t working as a navy reservist, he was back at his studies to become a police officer. When he returned from duty in 2007, training officer Teresa Evans was put in charge of overseeing Christopher’s training, but the relationship seemed to grate on the pair of them right from the start.

Christopher confided in Teresa that he planned on suing the LAPD once his probationary period was over. He’d previously filed complaints against his classmates and felt that the department hadn’t taken them seriously enough. Teresa Evans, on the other hand, was already an established member of the force who took Christopher’s allegations personally.

Tensions were high between Christopher and Teresa, but they reached their peak when they responded to a disturbance of the peace call at the Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro. The culprit was Christopher Gettler, a man who suffered from schizophrenia and dementia.

According to the report later filed by Christopher Dorner, Teresa Evans had used excessive force when arresting Christopher Gettler. Dorner claimed that once Teresa had Gettler in handcuffs, she’d kicked him twice in the chest and once in the face. The kick to the face allegedly left a visible wound on Gettler’s cheek.

Teresa denied these accusations. Gettler himself didn’t substantiate them right away or to the doctor who later treated the wound on his face, but he did later confide in his father. Gettler’s father claimed that his son had told him that a female officer had kicked him during his arrest and the LAPD split right down the middle.

There were those who believed Christopher Dorner and those who believed Teresa Evans and tensions between them grew even higher. Some photos from the scene seemed to contradict Teresa and her witnesses’ version of events. But Christopher didn’t help his case by waiting to file his official complaint against Teresa until after she’d submitted a report saying that Christopher drastically needed to improve his performance.

An internal examination that went on for seven months saw Teresa Evans assigned to desk duty, but she was ultimately found not guilty of any charges by a board that consisted of many of her friends. After that, a case was opened against Christopher Dorner who was then accused of making false charges and complaints against his fellow officers.

Both Christopher Gettler and his father testified in Dorner’s defense, but by then, Christopher Gettler was very ill and couldn’t string a sentence together. His father was left to pass on second-hand information and things didn’t go well for Dorner. With testimonies from other responding officers on the scene backing Teresa Evans up, Christopher Dorner was found guilty and fired from the LAPD.

Christopher and his lawyer, former LAPD captain Randal Quan, began a lengthy appeals process where Quan stated that Christopher was being unfairly targeted and used as a scapegoat. The courts disagreed and found that Christopher had been lawfully terminated. About the case, presiding Judge David Yaffe wrote that he was “uncertain whether the training officer kicked the suspect or not,” but that he assumed the LAPD had made the right decision when firing Christopher.

For Christopher this was devastating news. He was now officially out of a job, but more importantly for him, the LAPD and the courts had come after the one thing he held most dear: his integrity. Christopher had been publicly called a liar and humiliated and he saw only one way that he could clear his name.

Shortly after the final verdict of his case came through, Christopher took the first steps towards what he believed would be righting the wrong that had been committed against him.

On February first, 2013, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper received a package. Inside was a DVD with a detailed breakdown of Christopher’s case against the LAPD and another unusual item. A challenge coin that is usually issued by the LAPD when someone joins their ranks had clearly been shot and beside it was a note simply saying “1MOA”. This stands for “one minute of angle” and implies that the shooter had been standing about 91 meters away when they’d shot through the coin. (91 meters is roughly 300 feet)

It was clear that Christopher had an axe to grind with the LAPD and he also had the skills to turn this feud between them deadly. In response, the LAPD started a state-wide manhunt, but it looked like Christopher had gone underground.

Just two days later, twenty-eight-year-old Monica Quan and her fiance, twenty-seven-year-old Keith Lawrence, were sitting in their car in Irvine, California. Monica was the daughter of former LAPD captain Randal Quan, the same man who’d represented Christopher during his hearing, a representation that Christopher felt hadn’t brought him any justice.

Monica and Keith were approached that day by an unknown assailant and shot dead.

The very next day, Christopher Dorner made a lengthy post online that began with: “I know most of you who personally know me are in disbelief to hear from the media reports that I am suspected of committing such horrendous murders…” He then goes on to say: “Unfortunately, this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name. The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days. It has gotten worse.”

He also goes on to name people he admired like Republican Jon Huntsman and even President Obama, though Christoper does admit that Obama wasn’t his first choice as president. He mentions Piers Morgan, Ellen DeGeneres, Larry David, Chris Rock. “Charlie Sheen,” he wrote, “you’re effin awesome.”

He then pulls things back by saying that he was sad that he wouldn’t “be around to view and enjoy The Hangover III” because Christopher believed there was only one way that this whole situation was going to end. He wrote “I will not be alive to see my name cleared. That’s what this is about, my name… No-one grows up and wants to be a cop killer. It was against everything I ever was.” He named over forty LAPD members and their families as targets, including Randal Quan for failing to protect him during his hearing. “I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own. I’m terminating yours.”

With this confession, the LAPD now had a prime suspect for the murders of Monica Quan and Keith Larwence, but they still couldn’t actually find Christopher Dorner.

Widespread panic ensued. Protection details and officers, volunteers and the community began to see Christopher behind every corner. The media stirred the public by continuing to post every sighting online within minutes of them happening, but one sighting came a little too close for comfort for several responding officers.

On February seventh, two LAPD officers on their way to join a protection detail were flagged down by a local who claimed to have seen Christoper Dorner at a gas station. The officers responded to the report only to narrowly escape with their lives when Christoper climbed out of a white pick-up truck and opened fire. Only about twenty minutes later and in Riverside, California, two other officers were shot. Officer Michael Crain died from his injuries. The other officer was taken to hospital for surgery and fortunately survived.

In the early hours of the morning, a local found the remains of Christopher’s car near Big Bear Lake. The car had been set on fire and suggested that Christopher was now hiding somewhere out in the vast Californian wilderness. All schools in the area were shut down and locals were advised to stay home and keep their doors and windows locked as hundreds of officers scoured the neighborhoods.

But they still couldn’t find Christopher.

On February twelfth, deputies of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s department responded to a carjacking and began looking for it both on the ground and in the air. When they did finally spot it, they realized that the now infamous Christopher Dorner was the one driving it. They then gave chase and followed Christopher back to a cabin near Big Bear Lake, a cabin that officers had already canvassed but had walked away from when no one had answered the door.

Christopher then responded by opening fire from inside the cabin. He hit two officers during the shoot out, one of them, Detective Jeremiah MacKay, was later pronounced dead after he was airlifted to a nearby medical center.

The cabin was then surrounded by law enforcement from several agencies, but Christopher refused to come out or give in. It was only after the police deployed pyrotechnic tear gas inside the cabin that things came to an end. The tear gas set the cabin on fire and officers at the scene then reported hearing a single gunshot.

It looked like everything was finally over, but it still took law enforcement hours to get into the cabin. The fire continued to set off rounds of ammunition, making it impossible for anyone to safely enter until the fire had been put out.

Unofficially, Christopher Dorner was dead, killed by his own hand and a single gunshot wound to the head. This theory was then confirmed on February fourteenth, when the autopsy discovered through dental records that the charred remains found at the scene belonged to Christopher Dorner.

Just like his time in the LAPD, Christopher Dorner became the lightning rod for opinions on the state of the Los Angeles Police Department. Some hailed him as a hero, others, a murderous villain. Those who knew him personally claimed that the LAPD had tarnished the only thing that would have truly set Christopher off: his integrity. Ron Martinelli, a forensic criminologist and former police officer, said that Christopher never should have been accepted into the LAPD in the first place.

“I’m very surprised he was even selected to be a police officer,” he later said about Christopher. “His personality process, in my opinion, did not fit with law enforcement. You can’t seek to control others unless you are in control of yourself.”