Explore Dorner's motivation to kill Quan's daughter and the others
In order to find out the motivations that led Dorners' killing spree it important to look at his history and the events that occurred prior to the time of the killings. Christopher Dorner was a decorated US navy veteran, a college graduate and a former Los Angeles police detective. He was respected and lived an upstanding life. In 2005, he joined the Los Angeles police department and became a fully-fledged police officer in 2006 (Kelly). His life began to change in 2007 after he accused that his fellow police officer who was a training officer Teresa Evans had misused her powers by kicking Christopher Gettler twice in the face when he was lying on the ground. This claims caused an investigation by the Internal Review Board. They listened to a number of witnesses including the alleged victim’s father Richard Gettler. According to Richard, his son showed signs of been beaten on the face. While other witnesses claimed, that Evans did not strike the victim at all.
Some of the main reasons that caused the dismissal of Dorner were because two weeks after arresting Christopher Gettler Evans gave a performance review of Dorner and it stated that there are some areas that he needs to improve on the field. The other reason that made it look like Dorner had made a false accusation was the conflicting testimonies that Christopher made about the description of Evans (Branson-Potts et al.). The conflicting testimony made by Christopher according to his father was because he had severe dementia and schizophrenia. During the trial for Dorner former police captain Randal Quan, who became a lawyer after leaving the police department, represented him. Quan however was unable to prove that Dorner was telling the truth about the excessive use of force by Officer Evans thus he lost the case. When he lost his case, the LAPD had a right to fire him. Quan stated that Dorner did the right thing to report his supervisors for abuse.
In 2010, Dorner appealed the case but he lost the case and the decision was upheld. Dorner then appealed to the California Court of Appeal for the second appealiate district, which also upheld the lower court’s decision for Dorner to be fired by the Los Angeles Police Department. In the early February 2013, Dorner wrote a manifesto about the reasons and motivation of what he was about to do to the people he felt like they had wronged him such as the LAPD (Faturechi). He wanted the LAPD to acknowledge that he had been unjustly fired. He wanted them to state the reason why he was fired, which was that he had reported an officer for using excessive force on a suspect. Among those whom he believed wronged, him was Randal Quan. Dorner executed his revenge on Quan by shooting and killing his daughter and fiancé on February 3, 2013.
On 11th February, Dorner shot and killed one police officer and injured three other officers. He caused terror among the people of southern California as he was seeking revenge from the police. On 12th February, at Big Bear Lake in California, Dorner was cornered in a cabin by the police officers where there was a shoot out but eventually he shot himself and the house was engulfed in flames (Faturechi). He died at the age of 33 years. There are many reasons that might have caused Dorner to commit all those murders and wanted to do more damage. This was because he felt like he was unfairly discharged from the police force (Goffard et al.). In looking at the facts of the whole process, it seems that Randall Quan was among the people who supported him and tried to defend him in order for him not to lose his job.
He even went public to claim that the entire process of Dorner’s case was unfair. This however did not stop Dorner from blaming him for losing the case and causing him to be dismissed from the police force. The only way he could seek out his revenge was through killing his family members, which, unfortunately was his daughter and her fiancée (Kelly). In looking at the case, there seems to be some inconsistency in all the evidence that were shown that caused his dismissal. He felt like he might have been discriminated because of his race or the fact that he had reported another police officer for using excessive force with a suspect.
The United States of America are fully aware and wary over spree killings from troubled teens to adults with access to guns. This is the reason why there are programs made in schools and workplace in order to help the people who might have depression or PTSD. In looking at the case of Dorner, it is very clear that he had PTSD due to being dismissed from being a police officer. Dorner was used to being a man in the law enforcement. This is because of his background in which he was in the navy before he joined the LAPD. As the captain of the LAPD, it was their duty to find a way for Dorner to get help before discharging him. This is especially because he showed signs of being distressed especially when he claimed of being discriminated by the force because of his race. In the therapy, he might have been helped to understand the real reasons that caused him to be dismissed from the force. This in return could have helped to stop the spree killings of innocent people.
In America, there are still numerous reports of racial discrimination, therefore, as a leader it is very important to ensure that everybody is treated the same way. As a leader, it is important to be partial to everyone regardless of their position (Friday). The captain of the LAPD should have tried harder to ensure that he was partial when it came at a time when Dorner reported the incident of his supervising officer using excessive force. The incident should have been thoroughly investigated regardless of one’s race. Since in looking at the events that led up to the killing spree Dorner felt like he was treated unfairly because of his race (Kelly). In the manifesto that he made on Facebook, he claimed that two fellow officers had abused him due to his race and the punishment was a mere 22 days of suspension. The combination of this and his dismissal from the force because of an accusation he made brought him to insanity. There are other forms of punishment that he could have been given rather than be dismissed. Truth be told there have been worst cases where the police have committed worst crimes than falsely accusing someone and have only been suspended.
There are many reasons that caused the department to come with, the verdict they came with but they should have given him more room to defend himself. He also claimed to have been doomed from the start, therefore, no matter what evidence he came up with in his defence there was no way he could win (Goffard et al.). As a leader, it is important to implement rules that ensure that the review process does not show that it is favouring one party. In the hearing, Dorner should have been treated in such a way that the hearing looked like it was fair. This would have made him feel like he might win the case. The problem was that the hearing showed that he was the one who was wrong. This caused him to feel helpless thus caused him to do drastic measures in order to be heard. This shows that the captain, as well as the internal review board, should have ensured that the case of Dorner was been investigated and conducted in a fair manner. This probably would have caused Dorner to feel that the situation was handled in a just manner in that even if he had lost he would not feel cheated. This act might have prevented him from reacting in a vengeful manner thus many lives would not have been lost.
As a leader when they see that, there is a problem it is their duty to ensure that it is resolved (Friday). The leaders of LAPD should have reacted immediately after Dorner showed signs of being violent. Dorner threatened the LAPD and promised to harm them and other people (Kelly). This should have been an indicator that he should be caught, but nothing was done. As a leader in the police department whenever one hears a threat even if it is small from a former police officer, it is very important to take it seriously because whatever one promises they will follow through. Dorner wrote a manifesto and mentioned all the people he was going to harm that he felt had wronged him. This manifesto is something that should have alerted the police officials thus should have taken actions immediately and monitored his every action. The other major reason that should have alerted the police department was for the fact that he was skilled in using weapons and was a sharp shooter who was awarded in the navy for his skills in shooting. These shows how the police department was reluctant to take any actions thus caused them to be partially responsible for Dorner’s killing spree.
Work cited
Branson-Potts, Hailey et al. "Dorner". Los Angeles Times, 2013. Print
Faturechi, Robert. "Police seeking Dorner opened fire in a second case of mistaken identity". Los Angeles Times, 2013. Print
Friday, Tony. "Leadership Perspectives". Causing Excellence, 2014. Print
Goffard, Christopher et al. "The Manhunt for Christopher Dorner, Chapter 1: A Double Killing, a Vengeful Plan, a Wave of Fear". Los Angeles Times, 2013. Print
Kelly, Jon. "Christopher Dorner: What made a police officer kill?" BBC News, 2013. Print
