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 Ex-LAPD officer-turned-fugitive Christopher Dorner, who went on a deadly shooting rampage and then died after a shootout and fire last week, first tried to charm fishermen in San Diego’s Driscoll Wharf into giving him a ride to Mexico, sources said. 
 
 Dorner, 33, led authorities on a massive manhunt after allegedly killing an Irvine couple and a Riverside police officer in a crime spree across Southern California that began on Feb. 3. 
 
 Dorner's deadly crimes were allegedly part of a revenge-filled plot he outlined in an online manifesto targeting law enforcement officers and their families. 
 
 Authorities searched for Dorner all over Southern California -- from Irvine to National City -- and led extensive checkpoints at the San Ysidro border, believing Dorner was trying to flee into Mexico. 
 
 Fishermen at Driscoll Wharf told NBC 7 exclusively that Dorner was on the pier near Nimitz and Harbor Island Drive on Feb. 5 trying to charm his way into a boat ride to Mexico. 
 
 “He kept saying he wanted to go fishing off Mexico. I said ‘Mexico? That’s kinda weird. You could go fishing on the bay,’” said Jeremy Smith, a local commercial fisherman. 
 
 Smith spoke exclusively with NBC 7 on Saturday night. 
 
 Smith and others at the dock said Dorner was willing to pay $200 to $400 for someone to take him out to sea. He told the fishermen he was going to be deployed to Afghanistan and just wanted to go fishing in Mexico first. 
 
 Read more from NBCSanDiego.com 
 
 But at this pier, far away from popular fishing charters, most people were making repairs on their boats, not ready to go to sea. 
 
 Smith offered to show him around a luxury yacht that was for sale docked at the pier. But he asked him to remove the military style boots Dorner was wearing to keep the white carpeting clean. Dorner declined. 
 
 "Maybe he had a gun," Smith guessed. "Usually people want to see inside." 
 
 Dorner's request for a ride surprised some local fishermen, including Roy Sherman. 
 
 “I’ve been down here for 40 years and he’s the first guy that came down here and asked for a ride,” said Sherman. 
 
 San Diego Police Lt. Andra Brown said she was not aware of this particular Dorner sighting in San Diego. 
 
 “We’re not going to discuss details of an ongoing investigation,” Brown said, and referred questions about the incident to the Irvine Police Department. 
 
 Several other law enforcement sources -- not in the San Diego Police Department -- confirmed the man described by local fishermen was likely Dorner. 
 
 Dorner did spend time in San Diego between Feb. 4 and Feb. 6. 
 
 Gift of fish tacos 
 
 A surveillance video taken behind an auto parts store in National City on Feb. 4 shows Dorner tossing bullets, a uniform and other items that linked him to the Irvine double-homicide into a dumpster. 
 
 After spending an hour at the pier the next day, the fishermen said Dorner left, but returned with fish tacos for Smith, hoping that would convince the fisherman to help him find a charter. 
 
 The witnesses reported Dorner was very friendly, always with a smile on his face, calling himself "Mike." 
 
 The man who called himself "Mike" told Smith a story about a friend who was having problems with the police and said his friend had been fired. 
 
 "I think he was talking about himself, now that I think about it," added Smith. 
 
 Dorner eventually left peacefully without his ride to Mexico, the group of fisherman said. 
 
 Driscoll Wharf is adjacent to Naval Base San Diego on North Harbor drive. 
 
 Smith said Dorner returned to the wharf on Feb. 6 but still couldn't find anyone to take him to Mexican waters. 
 
 That same day, a man fitting Dorner’s description tried to steal a boat from a San Diego marina, according to officials. An 81-year-old man on the boat was tied up but uninjured. The would-be boat thief was unable to steal the boat and fled. 
 
 Karen and Jim Reynolds came face to face with Christopher Dorner when they arrived at their Big Bear cabin to clean it out for renters. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports. 
 
 Later that night, police issued Dorner's description, and the fishermen said they notified authorities of their encounter. 
 
 On Sunday, fishermen on Pier 6 at Driscoll Wharf are amazed the kind man who brought them fish tacos on Feb. 5 was the dangerous fugitive accused of fatally shooting four people, including a police officer and a sheriff’s deputy. 
 
 The 10-day manhunt for Dorner ended on Feb. 12. 
 
 After barricading himself in a Big Bear-area cabin, he died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials said. That cabin went up in flames during a shootout between Dorner and officers, and the fugitive's charred remains were later found inside. 
 
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 Dorner died of self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, authorities say 
 
 Police chief named in manifesto recalls 'the Chris Dorner that I knew' ||||| Police say they have received more than a 1,000 leads from the public in the search for former LAPD officer and murder suspect Christopher Dorner. 
 
 A fugitive former Los Angeles police officer wanted in connection with a deadly shooting rampage may have had help in his efforts to flee to Mexico as a massive manhunt was gearing up to capture him, according to federal court records obtained Monday by The Times. 
 
 The records state how authorities developed "probable cause" that Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, was possibly trying to escape to Mexico and provide new details on his actions since he allegedly killed three people, including a police officer, in a shooting rampage that police say began Feb. 3 in Irvine. 
 
 Dorner may have been helped by an associate identified only as "JY" in the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles late last week after the former police officer was suspected of fleeing from authorities. 
 
 DOCUMENT: Feds say Dorner may have fled to Mexico 
 
 Federal authorities told The Times on Monday night that the court papers, filed late last week, reflected their thinking at the time, but they stressed that Dorner could be anywhere. 
 
 As the manhunt continued Monday, the Riverside County district attorney's office filed murder and attempted murder charges against Dorner, who is accused of killing one police officer and wounding two others in that county before his burning pickup was found near Big Bear. 
 
 Dorner allegedly attempted to steal a boat in San Diego and, after subduing the captain, said he was taking the vessel to Mexico, according to an affidavit filed with the federal complaint. Dorner is accused of telling the captain that he could recover his boat in Mexico. 
 
 PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer 
 
 "The attempt failed when the bow line of the boat became caught in the boat's propeller, and the suspect fled," according to the affidavit by Inspector U.S. Marshal Craig McClusky. 
 
 After authorities interviewed the boat captain early Thursday, they found Dorner's wallet and identification cards "at the San Ysidro Point of Entry" near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the court records. That same day, a guard at the Point Loma Naval Base told authorities he had spotted a man matching Dorner's description trying to sneak onto the base, according to the filing. 
 
 The possibility that Dorner received help from the associate was raised in McClusky's affidavit. The Marine Corps and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department investigators were conducting a surveillance operation of an Arrowbear Lake property owned by a family member of the associate Thursday and discovered a burning vehicle nearby that matched the gray Nissan pickup used by Dorner. 
 
 TIMELINE: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer 
 
 The charges filed Monday in Riverside County on Monday accuse Dorner of opening fire, unprovoked, on Riverside police Officer Michael Crain, 34, a married father of two who served two tours in Kuwait as a rifleman in the U.S. Marines. 
 
 Dorner faces three additional counts of attempted murder of a peace officer for allegedly shooting and critically injuring Crain's partner and firing upon two Los Angeles police officers stationed in Corona to protect an LAPD official named in an online manifesto authorities attribute to Dorner. One of the LAPD officers was grazed on the head by a bullet. 
 
 Riverside County Dist. Atty. Paul Zellerbach said the murder charge includes two special circumstance allegations that make Dorner eligible for the death penalty — killing a peace officer and discharging a firearm from a vehicle. 
 
 Filing criminal charges will ensure that if Dorner is caught, either out of the state or out of the country, the outstanding arrest warrant would clear the way for a rapid extradition. 
 
 "I want to cover all my bases. I want to make sure when he is located and arrested, he can be extradited back to California as soon as possible," Zellerbach said after holding a noon news briefing. 
 
 The district attorney believes that Dorner, if he is still alive, is not done with his quest for revenge and thirst for the public's attention. 
 
 "Even though he may have gone underground now, given the nature of his conduct and his words and his actions, he's going to reappear," Zellerbach said. "I don't think he's done.... He's trying to send a message, and it would be my belief that his message is not completed yet.'' 
 
 Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz has called Dorner's attack on his two officers early Thursday a "cowardly ambush." Dorner allegedly opened fire as the officers sat in a patrol car, stopped at a red light.
– Christopher Dorner, the ex-cop who died last week after allegedly killing four people, tried to escape to Mexico, NBC News reports. On Feb. 5, just two days after he allegedly killed his first two victims, fishermen at San Diego's Driscoll Wharf say he approached them and tried to find someone who would take him fishing in Mexico. He offered $200 to $400 but found no takers, even after he came back to the pier with fish tacos to sweeten the deal. The fishermen remembered him being kind, and talking about a "friend" who had been fired and was having problems with the police. He tried again on Feb. 6, to no avail; that same day, someone matching his description tried to steal a boat from a San Diego marina and failed, tying up an 81-year-old man on the boat in the process. That night, Dorner's description was released, and the fishermen he spoke to notified authorities. Another new tidbit from the ensuing manhunt: Turns out Dorner didn't have to exert much effort in order to find the Big Bear hiding spot where he ended up. He just found an unlocked cabin and walked right in, locking the door behind him. He stayed hidden for days, though the cabin was just 100 feet away from the police command post, until its owners came to clean it and stumbled upon him. Police had knocked on the door when the Big Bear search began, the AP reports, but upon finding it locked with no sign of a break-in, they moved on.