BIG BEAR LAKE, CA - The ex-cop suspected in the killings of an officer and two others remained at large Friday as darkness fell over a mountain forest and police suspended their manhunt there until Saturday morning.
"Once it get dark out there and the snow keeps falling and they have no air support, I don't know how effective they could be," spokeswoman Cindy Bachman of San Bernardino County Sheriff's office said.
Throughout Friday, more than 100 officers searched through fresh snow for clues or tracks of Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, a fired Los Angeles Police Department officer and former Navy lieutenant who's a suspect in the three killings.
Dorner allegedly wrote a manifesto declaring a war of revenge on police, authorities said.
By Friday night, police were expected to have completed a search of more than 200 vacant cabins in the snowpacked forest of the San Bernardino Mountains near the resort town of Big Bear Lake, Bachman said.
Police performed a door-to-door search of 400 homes in the Big Bear Lake area, she said. Overnight patrols in the town were to be beefed up with 12 extra two-officer teams, she said.
"The search is continuing," Bachman said. "First of all, they have to rest. They have been going at this for two days."
Police teams were dressed head-to-toe in snow gear, holding the trigger guards on their assault-style rifles while scouring eight square miles near Big Bear Lake, popular for skiing and just a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles.
The snowbound San Bernardino Mountains were the main theater for Friday's dragnet because police found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck a day earlier near the resort community.
The truck had a broken axle, which would have prevented the vehicle from moving, and footprints show that Dorner apparently doubled back into the community, said a source with knowledge of the investigation.
It's unclear where Dorner went from there or by what means, the source said.
But Bachman told reporters Friday: "The possibility exists that he is here, somewhere in the forest, so we're going to keep looking...until we determine that he's not here."
Guns found in the truck were also burned, but authorities believe Dorner may have as many as 30 guns with him, the source said. Dorner was in the Navy and is trained in counterinsurgency and intelligence, the source said.
Two inches of snow Friday coated the mountaintop pine trees and roads around Big Bear Lake, forcing motorists to use tire chains. Up to six more inches were expected. But the snow was regarded as a godsend because tracking a man on the run would be easier, authorities said.
Despite the intense search, authorities allowed nearby ski resorts to remain open Friday because they don't believe Dorner is in Big Bear Lake, where police conducted a door-to-door search. At one point, a smiling snowboarder whizzed by police and media, seemingly oblivious to an ongoing press conference and the seriousness of the manhunt.
Jay Obernolte, mayor of Big Bear Lake community described the day Friday as "a beautiful winter morning." Residents weren't fearful, he said, adding that "many of the people here are armed."
"Is there panic in our community?" Obernolte told reporters. "No, there is no panic.
"We're a hardy people in the San Bernardino Mountains," he added.
San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said the snowfall slowed some searching done by foot, but police pushed onward, reporting no problems in reaching places.
"The snow is great for tracking folks, as well as looking at each individual cabin to see if there's any sign of forced entry," McMahon said.
"We're going to continue searching until we either discover he left the mountain or we find him," he added. "It's extremely dangerous."
Meanwhile, the county jail in downtown Los Angeles was in lockdown Friday as a precaution after a civilian female employee of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility spotted someone fitting Dorner's description, said Los Angelese County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.
Elsewhere, U.S. Navy installations throughout California and Nevada were "maintaining a heightened security posture," a U.S. military official told CNN.
"Security personnel are on the lookout" for Dorner, the official said. The measure was ordered overnight by Rear Adm. Dixon Smith, commander of the Navy's southwest region.
The official declined to discuss security procedures, but said the move was made after it became clear that Dorner earlier this week was able to get access to the Naval Base at Point Loma and stay in a motel there.
Two sailors reported that he approached them Wednesday and spoke with them for about 10 minutes. The conversation took place at a coastal "riverine" unit in San Diego where Dorner served in 2006. As a Navy reservist, Dorner held security jobs with that unit.
The Navy is not certain whether Dorner still possesses any military identification he might try to use to access a facility. The official confirmed an investigation is under way to determine
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