Who was Christopher Jordan Dorner?

By John Randolph Rogers, Pasadena/SGV Journal Contributing Writer

Like most of the public, I heard the news that two young people had been shot to death. The murders were reported to have been in Irvine, California. One of the victims was an Asian young lady, who was an assistant basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. The other was an African-American man, who was a Public Safety Officer at USC. There were photographs of them together, and they were an attractive couple.

While I was certain this was a tragedy for their families and their friends, it was not an unusual occurrence. Unfortunately, shootings are very common in this country.

Then we learned that the shootings had been done by a former Los Angeles City Policeman. This was beginning to sound weird. He was identified as Christopher Jordan Dorner, and he was reported to be 33 years old. I wondered what the connection between them might be.

While I pondered, it was revealed that he had been fired from LAPD in 2007, when he was found guilty of lying about his Training Officer. He reported to his supervisors that she had kicked a suspect in the face. She was cleared of the charge. As a result of this report, he was brought up on charges, even though the person they arrested subsequently received medical attention for facial injuries.

In the inquiry conducted by the LAPD, Officer Dorner was represented by Police Captain Randal Quan. He was found guilty and fired by the LAPD. For the organization, it was just another day at the office. For Mr. Dorner, his lifelong dream of becoming a Police Officer had been taken away from him. It was just his word against the system, and no one would listen to him. They just ended the case and his career. Case closed.

Then it was announced that the lady who was murdered, was Monica Quan, the daughter of Captain Randal Quan, who was assigned to defend Mr. Dorner has the Inquiry. In the Manifesto that he wrote, Dorner stated that Quan was a part of the conspiracy that got him fired. He felt betrayed, and he has been living with that grievance for several years. Now, he finally had his revenge.

Additionally, it was revealed that he had been a Police Explorer as a youngster. Later, he had graduated from the University of Utah, and then served, apparently with distinction, in the US Military in Bahrain. Somewhere along the way, he became an expert in the use of firearms, and military strategy. This was a serious man, who would be unlikely to invent a trivial falsehood, or sit quietly by while some citizen was being abused by another Police Officer.

As the years passed, the injustice that he felt that had been done to him continued to fester. Finally, he reached his breaking point, and he has become a murderer. As this is being written, he has already killed three people, and wounded two more.

He published his “Manifesto”, on the Internet, and he attempted to explain who he was, and what he was doing. It appears that his plans are to kill as many people as possible. So far, he has been clever and resourceful. However, he is being hunted by thousands of policemen, and many civilians are also on the lookout. So, he is likely to be caught or killed in the very near future.

There can be no justification for the murders that he has committed. However, it appears that his first major crime was that he broke “The Code of Silence” of the LAPD. Their history of abusing citizens is long, and it is well documented. Not just the sensational cases like Rodney King, but the routine day-to-day havoc that they have wreaked upon the general population. They may have thought that this would just be a routine firing that would never be noticed by anyone. Regrettably, for all of us, they were wrong.

Then, in a move that is absolutely unprecedented in the history of Los Angeles, LAPD’s Chief of Police Charles Beck announced on television that he would conduct a public review of the firing of Mr. Dorner. He explained that this was being done, “not to appease a suspect but to provide transparency into how this case was handled.”

Later, Los Angeles Major Antonio Villaraigosa announced a$1- million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Christopher Jordan Dorner.

Unless Mr. Dorner has found a way to leave the United States, this reward has made it highly likely that he will soon be captured or killed. Even if he already had some kind of support system in place, he would no longer be likely to trust any of them. So, in spite of his incredible skills, he has to be someplace, and he has to eat. He is so recognizable that he has to remain in hiding. So, one way or the other, it will soon be over.

You may contact John Randolph Rogers, Writer & Historian via Jorrogers@aol.com.