Story highlights
An internal Los Angeles Police team reviews the 2009 termination of officer Christopher Dorner
His firing was "factually and legally" proper, report says
His termination was due to his own actions, LAPD says
In a vendetta against police, Dorner killed four people and wounded three others
The Los Angeles Police Department was “factually and legally” proper in 2009 when it fired Christopher Dorner, who killed four people and wounded three others in a rampage this year, an internal department report said Friday.
Dorner, 33, apparently took his own life during a police shootout in February after he was cornered in a mountain cabin in San Bernardino County, California, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
After a five-month review of Dorner’s firing, a team headed by a special assistant to the police chief found that the officer’s termination “was not only appropriate, it was the only course the department could have taken based on the facts and evidence,” the internal report said.
The review team found the firing “sound and just,” the report said. Dorner was removed from the police department in September 2008 and officially terminated in January 2009 for filing a false complaint against his training officer, who Dorner alleged kicked a suspect.
In an 11-page manifesto this year, Dorner said he was relieved of his duties after he reported excessive force by a fellow officer in 2007.
“After a thorough review of all the available information, my analysis concludes that the discharge of Christopher Dorner was justified,” Gerald Chaleff, LAPD special assistant for constitutional policing, said in a statement. “His discharge was based on his own actions. The allegations he made against his training officer appeared to have been made in an effort to forward his own agenda.”
Police Chief Charlie Beck said he sought Chaleff’s review “because I wanted to ensure that the Los Angeles Police Department is fair and transparent in all that we do.
“All of us recognize that as a department we are not perfect,” Beck said in a statement. “Nonetheless, this report shows that the discharge of Christopher Dorner was factually and legally the right decision.”
The report was submitted to the Board of Police Commissioners, which will hear the matter at its meeting Tuesday.
A second department report will be published later this year on issues raised by Dorner and others about alleged corruption in the department’s disciplinary process and about the state of employee relations.
After unsuccessfully challenging his dismissal in court, police say, the renegade officer launched a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the LAPD, targeting numerous officers involved in his case and their families. He had served in the Navy.
Dorner killed the daughter of his police union representative, her fiancé, a police officer in suburban Riverside and a sheriff’s deputy.