LAPD Will Investigate Dorner's '09 Firing

Chief points to department's racist past, says it's not to 'appease a murderer'
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 10, 2013 5:59 AM CST
LAPD Will Investigate Dorner's '09 Firing
A US Forest Service Law Enforcement officer searches a home for Christopher Dorner in Big Bear Lake, Calif, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Amid its frantic search for fugitive and alleged murderer Christopher Dorner, the LAPD has announced that it is also taking another look at the 2009 investigation that ended his police career, reports the LA Times. Emphasizing that he wasn't trying "to appease a murderer," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said he was nonetheless "aware of the ghosts of the LAPD's past and one of my biggest concerns is that they will be resurrected by Dorner's allegations of racism within the department."

Dorner in 2007 accused a female training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest; two years later, the department concluded he was lying and "determined that Officer Dorner's credibility is damaged beyond repair." Both at the time and in a Facebook manifesto Dorner posted before his alleged shooting spree, he steadfastly maintained his innocence. "I told the truth!" he said at his 2009 hearing. "How can this happen?" He remains at large, and police are continuing to focus their search in the mountains around Big Bear Lake, notes the Times. (More LAPD stories.)

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