Sheriff: 'We did not intentionally burn down that cabin'

>> good afternoon. the events that occurred yesterday in the big bay area, brought to close an extensive man hunt for murder suspect, krisz fer dorner. it was in response to a stolen vehicle with the suspect matching the description of dorner, was later discovered that he crashed that vehicle and carjacked a vehicle in the angeles-oaks area. the deputies continued searching that area for the new suspect vehicle, the white pick-up truck, as well as dorner. the deputies were able to locate the vehicle crashed and he -- dorner, fled into a vacant cabin . as the deputies were arriving, we believe suspect dorner began firing and ambushed her dep city sheriffs that were responding. two of our deputy sheriffs were struck by gunfire, one of which was severely injured. deputy alex collins, he's currently at the hospital being treated. he went through a couple of different surgeries. i just spoke to his wife. he's in good spirits and should make a full recovery after a number of additional surgeries. unfortunately, our other deputy, detective jeremiah was pronounced deceased at 2:24 p.m . yesterday at the hospital. the detective is 35 years old and has been a member of our department for 15 years. he's married and has two children, a 7-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old son. he's presently assigned to the station but had also been a detective at the big bear station. my sincere condolences go out to the family. this is truly another sad day for law enforcement . our department is grieving from this event. it's just a terrible deal for allover us. the folks that are up here with me, as well, have also been dealing with this suspect's behavior over the last week. we believe that this investigation is over at this point and we'll just need to move on from here. i will tell you that the dep city sheriffs that responded to this active shooting scene yesterday were absolutely true heroes . there were rounds being fired, as you saw on the news coverage, was absolutely incredible. our deputies continued to go in to that area and tried to neutralize and stop the threat. the rounds kept coming, but the deputies didn't give up. our deputy sheriffs are some true heroes . they're highly trained and i will tell you that i'm proud to be a member of this department. and our deputy sheriffs did a great job yesterday.

thank you: any questions?

>> will you take questions now, chief?

>> yes.

>> can you confirm that it is mr. dorner, his remains.

>> i cannot absolutely positively confirm it's him. the suspect that we were following and also had stolen the vehicle, matched his description. his behavior, based on our deputy's intersaction with him was consistent to mr. dorner prior to and we're not currently involved in a man hunt any longer. our coroner is working on trying to confirm the identity through forensics and we should know that at some point.

>> sheriff, there are lots of questions about the fire that started at the cabin . was that on purpose? did firefighters set the blaze as a result of the tear gas that was fired in there?

>> i can tell you that it was not on purpose. we did not intentionally burn down that cabin .

>> we used a cold tear gas that was pyre tech nick. it does generate a lot of heat. we had introduced those canisters into the residence and a fire erupted.

>> there was some product about a burner and i don't know what that is. can you explain that?

>> the canisters are commonly referred to as burners.

>> that goes to your command po post.

>> i'm growing to ask the deputy chief who was heading up from big bear to answer that question.

>> good afternoon, during the initial arrangements, dorner's vek was found. we did an extensive search of that area. about 80% of the cabins in that area are part time cabins. we went to each cabin . if there were no signs of break in or no open doors , we then o note noted it and moved on to the next cabin . any other questions?

>> all of those cabins in that particular area, we sent teams of deputies out to check to see if there was any entry and if we could make con takt.

>> can you tell us about what happened? what happened to the people that were in there?

>> i don't believe that anybody was in there on thursday. at the start of the investigation, we don't believe that there was anybody that was in that cabin , eerlt a rental or the owner.

>> did you guys find weapons in the burned out cabin or the one that hoe's staying in, any sort of personal belongings that had been linked?

>> some of these things are still preliminary. as the investigation moves forward, we'll have more information. as i said, some of that information will become available at the conclusion of the investigation.

>> i would imagine that it could have been thursday, but i'm telling you, at the time, there was nobody renting that cabin .

>> did you tell individuals --

>> we did not find any forced entry .

>> do you believe that he picked that cabin because it was close to where the station was? do you believe that he was planning another attack? or the shootout just happened because he got scared?

>> no, at this point, that would be speculative and we'll comment on that later.

>> we spoked to individuals in that neighborhood said people never knocked on their doors. that cabin was a vacation rental . it doesn't sound like you guys were there, you know, and you completely cleared that area.

>> i can tell you that the cabin that had been rented out was february 26th . and there was extensive work of the cabins.

>> please understand that there's an on going investigation and many of your question wills be answered at a later date. we're not going to be taking any further questions at this point. statements will be made summarized and we'll be posting an update to the department web site .

>> i'd like to thank you all for coming to our press conference. that concludes the press conference for today.

>> was there any offer to surrender?

>> can anybody speak to whether there was any tactical abilities that he bragged about?

>>