A good cup of coffee to go with your police shootouts and burning cabins, but was it really Dorner who was killed?Ruth Hull PIO Hughan stated that after driving past Glass Road, the officers realized they had lost him and turned back. The SUV crashed and the suspect reportedly commandeered a silverywhite truck owned by Rick Heltebrake, an onsite ranger for the Boy Scout campground. Reportedly the truck was taken at rifle-point. According to most versions, the suspect drove the truck away from Highway 38 and then turned around. Meanwhile, two other Fish and Wildlife cars came from the East and turned on Glass Road. According to Officer Hughan and Lieutenant Patrick Foy of the Fish and Wildlife Department in Sacramento, the game warden in the first of the second set FW cars believed he visually identified Dorner as he passed him in a car. The second FW car was fired upon and hit (with about 5 or more rounds). According to Hughan, Dorner turned East on 38 towards Big Bear. He stated that 38 and Glass curve towards each other. In his version, one of the FW officers got out of his car and ran across the area towards where 38 (E) comes close to Glass and fired 15 to 20 rounds, emptying his clip. According to Lt. Foy, the FW officer ran across an area where Glass did a hairpin turn and shot at the truck while it was on Glass Road. A while later Ricks truck crashed. The story about the truck crashing on Glass Road would put the truck closer to Seven Oaks, where the cabin was supposedly located. The Sheriffs Department, which finished up the chase and engaged in the reported gun battle, was conveniently leaving all the press work to FW, which only had the first part of the story. According to Hughan and Foy, after the truck crashed the suspect took off on foot. There was reportedly shooting and the suspect took refuge in a cabin/community center that was perhaps 3000 square feet in size on the ground floor and appeared to have a second floor. 95% of the cabins are empty this time of year according to Tom Berens, owner of the Oaks Restaurant. He pointed out that most people have these cabins as vacation homes. Brett Berens stated that he first saw four San Bernardino Sherriffs cars speeding up the mountain at about 12:40 P.M. and then a steady stream, including SWAT cars and cars from about every jurisdiction in the area. By about 1:15, the road was closed past The Oaks Restaurant to the press and all others and by that time perhaps 180 law enforcement vehicles had passed. The Oaks Restaurant is about five to six miles west from the cabin. With the police even shooting women they mistake for Dorner, maybe some non-Dorner African-American individuals with the usual Angelus Oaks shotgun could have been frightened into firing, but that is speculation. And while we were sitting at The Oaks Restaurant, a two big black guys showed up, one with Cal Trans and another an officer with guns. Did they get the wrong big black guy with a gun? The only reporter that got close to the cabin was reportedly from K-Cal and followed a sheriffs vehicle. He was sent back quickly, though, getting brief footage of some kind of shooting, no footage of Dorner. The police shot gas canisters into the cabin, perhaps. The cabin caught fire and burned. Remains were found. But whose? One newsman postulated that a resident could have been shot while Dorner escaped. But to the police, it is believed that this ends the episode of Chris Dorner. Overnight the press did their own press releases while waiting to learn more but were still blocked off from the area, while Tom and Brett kept their restaurant open all night, serving coffee, free of charge, to all who entered. Though this writer doesnt drink coffee, the report is that the coffee was very good. And if Dorner is dead, who is left to tell the tale of the two manifestos? The version released by most media outlets was inconsistent with the original manifesto and clearly written by a different person than the individual who wrote the original. But was the original even written by Dorner? If Dorner is dead, the public is left to make up its own theories. Was Dorner even at Big Bear? Did he really shoot any of the individuals he is accused of shooting? The police mistook two women for him last week. Maybe it was two women who did all the shootings. Maybe it was two women in the cabin if the officers up north have similar eyesight to the officers in Torrance. Under the Constitution of the United States, a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. This leaves Dorner legally innocent. But what is the truth and will we ever know? Lt. Foy was a really nice guy, but Fish and Wildlife deferred to the missing Sheriffs department for the details and maybe they didnt want to account for them. The CHP claimed they were just working the road closures. Nobodys being particularly accountable. But isnt it interesting that the effort all along was to shoot his mouth closed (from the shooting of the women in Torrance) to the incident at Big Bear? What was it they didnt want anyone to hear him say? Maybe Sam, the newshound, ready to head to the cabin and sniff out what really happened, will discover the full story. *All photos taken by Ruth Hull Ruth Hull is an activist and writer whose career has included work as a criminal defense attorney, a licensed private investigator, and an educator. 