LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A cabin where a fugitive ex-Los Angeles police officer barricaded himself in a standoff with police was on fire Tuesday afternoon, after a shootout with police during which one officer was killed and another wounded.
It is not clear whether Christopher Dorner, 33, is alive or dead. Media reports quoted police source as saying that a single gun shot was heard from the cabin after the fire started.
Dorner was found in the Big Bear area in San Bernardino County of Southern California Tuesday afternoon after he burglarized a home, tied up a couple and stole their car. A massive manhunt for him entered the sixth day on Tuesday.
Several local schools in the area were closed, according to the county sheriff. Sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller told media that, "The suspect fled into the forest and barricaded himself inside a cabin. A short time later there was an exchange of gunfire between law enforcement and the suspect."
Dorner was fired by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 2009 after a police disciplinary board found him guilty of making false statement against his training officer, whom he accused of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest in 2007.
The LAPD announced Sunday a one-million-dollar reward for information leading to the capture of Dorner who is suspected of killing a couple in Irvine and a Riverside police officer and injured two others in a revenge rampage against the police last week.
A statement on what is believed to be Dorner's Facebook page criticized racism in the LAPD.
In the past days, police searched from Riverside to Corona to Big Bear to Point Loma in San Diego, a large area in Southern California. They found Dorner's abandoned car last Thursday in flames in Big Bear area.
The LAPD said Sunday that it will reopen investigation into the firing of Dorner in a bid to put the public thinking to rest.
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