Alleged California Cop-Killer Was Once Hailed As Hero In Enid

By Heather Hope, News 9

ENID, Oklahoma-- The manhunt ramps up for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected of three murders Christopher Dorner was fired from the force in 2008, and it's a mystery why the violence is happening now. Dorner's manifesto mentions he used to live in Enid and was once known there as a Good Samaritan.

About 11 years ago at Enid's Korean Church of Grace, a local newspaper reporter says Christopher Dorner was a young student pilot at Vance Air Force Base and was considered a local hero.

"He seemed to have a good, enthusiastic attitude," said Robert Barron, a staff writer for 13 years at the Enid News and Eagle. "And I didn't think anything about it. Of course I had no idea what he was going to 11 years later."

Barron covers several stories a day for his local paper, but it's the story he wrote in November 2002 that is getting national attention. He wrote a piece about two local Good Samaritans from Vance Air Force Base, who found a bag filled with $8,000 lying in the street and turned it into police.

He says one of the Samaritans was Dorner, the 33-year-old former officer, who allegedly shot and killed one cop and injured two others and is still on the loose.

"I called the base and Chris Dorner called me back, and we chatted for just a minute and he sounded like anybody else, like any of the other pilots," Barron said.

Barron spoke to Dorner over the phone after he says the police turned over the found money to the Korean Church of Grace, who lost it.

"We expect that kind of thing from students from Vance," said Barron. "They're officers, they're well trained, they're disciplined. It wasn't exactly a surprise they had done that."

Dorner began his killing spree on Sunday and is said to be hiding out near Big Bear in California.

Enid is listed as a city Dorner lived in the lengthy manifesto he wrote.

But as for Dorner heading to Oklahoma next...

"No I don't think so," Barron says. "I think they'll probably catch him in California."

And the search for Dorner continues.