US ex-officer died from ‘gunshot to head’

US police officials say an autopsy report has revealed that Christopher Dorner, a fugitive former officer whose charred remains were found in a burned-out California mountain cabin following clashes with police, had died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

San Bernardino County Sheriffs’ Captain Kevin Lacy told a news conference on Friday that Dorner’s fatal wound appeared to be self-inflicted.

“During the autopsy yesterday, the doctor who conducted the process concluded that the cause of death was a single
gunshot wound to the head. We are not, at this point, ready to speak about the manner of death and tell you whether or
not it was as a result of a self-inflicted wound or another round,” he said.

“We will tell you that, while we are still compiling information and putting our reports together, the information we have right now seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner’s life was self-inflicted.”

1,000 officers

Dorner, who also served as an officer in the US Navy reserves, was accused of killing four people since February 3, including a sheriff’s deputy shot during the gun battle on Tuesday in the San Bernardino Mountains.

An angry manifesto found posted last week on a Facebook page that apparently belonged to Dorner claimed he had been
wrongly terminated from the Los Angeles Police Department and vowed to seek revenge by unleashing “unconventional and asymmetrical warfare” on police officers and their families.

Police said he had been on the run since last Wednesday, when he was named as the prime suspect in the killings of a
couple, including the daughter of a retired Los Angeles police captain, in Irvine, south of Los Angeles.

The ensuing manhunt involved more than 1,000 officers from over a dozen local, state and federal law enforcement
agencies and stretched from the Mexican border to the California desert north of the San Bernardino.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck called it the largest manhunt in the region’s history.