A 'gut feeling' by police mentor who got Dorner fired from LAPD led to massive manhunt for killer ex-cop
- Dorner made charge of police brutality against LAPD Sgt. Teresa Evans, which was proved untrue, leading to his termination
- Evans said 'I just knew' that Dorner was behind murder of Monica Quan and her fiance
- Called police who soon found his online manifesto and began manhunt
- Her quick-thinking likely saved lives before Dorner could surprise other potential targets
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The training officer whose dispute with former Los Angeles police Officer Christopher Dorner led to his firing has said it was her hunch that led police to name him as the suspect in the killing of an Orange County couple.
'In my mind, it felt like such a long shot,' said Teresa Evans. 'But my gut feeling made it a lot stronger than that. I just knew. Something told me that there was some kind of a connection.'
After Evans called police, an intense and deadly manhunt began that ended with Dorner's suicide in a mountain cabin.
Christopher Dorner's former trainer at the Los Angeles Police Department said her tip that he was a murder suspect led to the massive manhunt
Dorner, her partner and trainee, had accused her of police brutality in 2008, leading to his dismissal for making false statements in 2009.
On. Feb. 4, when few knew Dorner's name, police in National City near San Diego called Evans, saying they had found some of his belongings including ammunition, pieces of a police uniform and a notebook with her name in it.
'Just hearing his name was enough to make me feel sick,' Evans said.
The same day she learned that Monica Quan, daughter of former LAPD Captain Randal Quan, and her fiancé had been shot to death, their bodies found in a car at an Irvine parking garage.
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ShareEvans recalled that Randal Quan had represented Dorner in disciplinary hearings at the time of his firing.
She said she couldn't shake a 'nagging, sinking feeling,' wondering if Dorner could have killed Monica Quan in some kind of vendetta against her father.
'I have to call Irvine PD,' she remembered thinking.
Irvine police quickly learned how valuable the tip was, discovering an online manifesto written by Dorner that outlined his motives and intentions and named several targets within the LAPD.
Murdered: The four victims of Dorner's rampage are, clockwise from top left, Monica Quan, daughter of an ex-LAPD; Keith Lawrence, Quan's fiance; Riverside police Officer Michael Crain and San Bernardino sheriff's detective Jeremiah MacKay
By Feb. 6, three days after the shooting, Irvine police held a news conference naming Dorner as their suspect.
The next morning, authorities said, Dorner was opening fire on police officers, and for the six days that followed he would be the subject of one of the biggest manhunts in California history.
By the time he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a flaming mountain cabin after a final violent standoff with law enforcement officers he had killed four people, including a San Bernardino County sheriff's detective and a Riverside police officer.
LAPD officials confirmed Evans' account for the Times, and police Chief Charlie Beck said her actions saved lives.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Evans calling her tip likely saved lives
Despite her strong suspicions, Evans was stunned when she learned her hunch had been correct.
'I was absolutely sick,' Evans said. 'I thought, 'What am I going to do?' At the time Mr. Dorner was terminated, I had a very uneasy feeling. I knew he was very upset and I had concerns that at some point he may try to contact me. So, this was just validating the bad feeling I carried with me for years. I was scared to death.'
As soon as the manifesto was discovered Evans and her family were put under guard by a police detail, and remained that way until after Dorner's death.
She said that despite more than a week passing she has yet to return to her home, she has continued to receive threats, and the fear has yet to subside.
'I honestly don't think my life will ever be normal the way it was before,' Evans said. 'This was such an extraordinary circumstance, I don't know if I'm ever going to feel safe in my home again.'
Evans has said she felt 'absolutely sick' after learning Dorner was in fact the killer and always feared he'd try to contact her after his firing
This is the cellar of the burned out cabin where Dorner died in Big Bear, Californina
The news comes a few days after police said Dorner 'did his homework' and stalked several of his targets before unleashing his rampage.
Dorner spent several days conducting surveillance on the homes and families of officers who he said had wronged him and led to his firing from the LAPD in 2009.
Beck also said that attorneys are still examining whether anyone will receive the $1million reward that was offered for Dorner's arrest and capture.
An LAPD captain who was on the review board that fired Dorner described how he and his wife, also an LAPD officer, endured sleepless nights and feared for the safety of their children after he was named a target in Dorner's rambling, online manifesto.
Relieved: Sgt. Emada Tingirides and Capt. Phil Tingirides, husband and wife, said they feared for their children after Dorner began his rampage
'We hear threats all the time, but rarely so specifically, and that someone has already carried out in the most cowardly way,' Capt. Phil Tingirides said.
His wife, Sgt Emada Tingirides, said the news coverage of Dorner's rampage was too much to handle.
'We shut the TV off after the first day,' she said.
Gun battle: This LAPD squad car carried two officers who confronted Dorner when he tried to attack one of the targets on his list. One officer was wounded in the attack, but will survive
On February 7, he tried to tried to attack another of his declared targets in Corona, but but met by two LAPD officers standing guard.
Dorner wounded one of the officers and disabled their squad car in the ensuing gunfight.
He then drove to nearby Riverside and opened fire on Officer Michael Crain while he was sitting in his squad car at a red light. Crain, 34, died in the attack.
On February 12, officers chased Dorner to a cabin in San Bernardino National Forest, 100 miles east of Los Angeles. He killed San Bernardino Sheriff's Detective Jeremiah McKay before shooting himself in the head during a siege of the cabin.
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