State corrections fugitive team joins Dorner manhunt

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Members of the California corrections department’s fugitive apprehension task force, normally given the job of hunting high-risk parole absconders, have joined the statewide search for a former Los Angeles police officer believed to be on the rampage.

The Fugitive Apprehension Team is assisting the U.S. Marshals Service as part of the multi-agency task force searching Thursday for Christopher Dorner, said Deborah Hoffman, deputy secretary of communications for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

‘On any given day, CDCR employees are working with law enforcement entities throughout California solving crimes and bringing fugitives into custody,’ Hoffman said.

Since 2006, the prisons agency has had its fugitive team members deputized as U.S. marshals.

Authorities launched the search for Dorner early Thursday after the shootings of three law enforcement officers in southern California. One of them was killed. The hunt widened statewide later in the morning.

Dorner was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2009. He also is a suspect in the killing of an Orange County couple earlier this week. Those dead included the daughter of a police official Dorner allegedly blamed for the loss of his job.

ALSO:

Cop-killer is ‘sick,’ Villaraigosa says in touting gun control

Fugitive ex-cop stayed in San Diego hotel; military bases on alert

Manhunt: Ex-LAPD cop thought to have stalked victims, sources say

-- Paige St. John in Sacramento