Suspected killer declares war on LAPD
Angry ex-cop accused of three murders uses Facebook to threaten former fellow officers
A massive manhunt was under way in Southern California for a sacked policeman accused of three murders, who declared war on law-enforcement officers and their families in a rambling internet manifesto.
Protection teams were dispatched overnight to guard uniformed officers and their families, scores of officers set up lines of defence outside the fortress that is the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters, and motorcycle officers were ordered to retreat to the safety of patrol cars.
Overnight, police swarmed the mountains surrounding a California ski area for Christopher Dorner, who is said to be heavily armed.
The bloodshed attributed to Dorner, 33, began with the weekend slayings of a university safety officer and his fiancée, Monica Quan, 28.
She was the daughter of a retired Los Angeles police captain who represented Dorner in disciplinary action that led to his firing in 2008. Quan and her fiancé were found dead in Irvine, 64 kilometres south of Los Angeles.
The violence escalated on Thursday with the fatal shooting of a police officer in Riverside and the wounding of two others.