The Los Angeles City Council approved a $100,000 payment Tuesday to four people who helped lead authorities to a former police officer -- the subject of a Southern California manhunt in February that ended with a shootout in the mountains east of Los Angeles.
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The payments represent the city's portion of the reward offered in the search for ex-Los Angeles Police Department officer Christopher Dorner.
Dorner, a former LAPD officer and United States Navy Reserve officer, killed four people, including two police officers, during a rampage from Feb. 3 to 12 before he shot himself as police surrounded a Big Bear cabin in which he engaged officers in a shootout.
Reward money totaling $1 million was put up by several city and county agencies and private donors. Last week, the council's Public Safety Committee recommended the council release the $100,000 in reward funds to the four claimants as promised by the city of Los Angeles.
The total reward will be split among three parties, with 80 percent going to James and Karen Reynolds, a couple who were tied up in their Big Bear cabin by Dorner, and the rest will go to ski resort employee Daniel McGowan and tow truck driver Lee McDaniel.
The money will come out of the city's reserve funds.
A panel of three judges decided which parties would receive the reward money based on whether the claimant contacted police with information that helped the investigation and whether that information led to Dorner’s capture. The Reynolds were deemed "instrumental" in locating Dorner.
Dorner left the couple tied up in the cabin Feb. 12, then stole their vehicle. Karen Reynolds was able to retrieve her phone and call authorities to notify them of their attacker.
Dorner was located about 30 minutes later.
As for McGowan, he was driving to work along an unpaved fire road in Big Bear Lake on Feb. 7 when he came across Dorner’s burning truck. That information led law enforecement agents to the mountains east of Los Angeles.
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McDaniel spotted Dorner at an AM/PM gas station in Corona early in the morning on Feb. 7.
Dorner killed a newly engaged couple, including the daughter of a former LAPD captain, on Feb. 3 before slaying a Riverside police officer on Feb. 10, and a San Bernardino County Sheriff's detective on Feb. 13.
In a manifesto posted on online, Dorner said his ramapage would end when the LAPD cleared his name after he was fired from the force in 2008. He was accused of falsely accusing a fellow officer of kicking a suspect.
