Christopher Dorner Case: LAPD Alert Called Off, Officials Confident Manhunt is Over

The LAPD has moved back into a "normal state of police operation" after Tuesday's Christopher Dorner gun battle, a signal that the manhunt is over.

Cops won't officially declare Christopher Dorner dead until the tests are run on the corpse believed to be inside what is left of a burned down California cabin.

Still, every indication is that Dorner was inside when the cabin went up in smoke. A rep for the police department says the city is no longer on tactical alert.

Dorner met his fate following a frightening shootout in which he exchanged fire with police and barricaded himself in a remote cabin in Big Bear, Calif.

see more after the cut

The former LAPD officer is accused of killing four people, including two police officers, one of whom died yesterday during the gun battle with Dorner.

Authorities are working to examine the remnants of the cabin and ID any remains before putting out an official report confirming the death of Dorner.

The manhunt for the 33-year-old spanned a week and much of Southern California before apparently ending in Big Bear yesterday afternoon.

Early Tuesday, two cleaning ladies at a condominium in Big Bear discovered a man they say looked like Dorner, who was rumored to be hiding there.

He took them hostage, tied them up and tried to escape, stealing a pair of vehicles along the way. Now law enforcement officials are confident they got their man.

Acting on reports of a carjacking, law enforcement officials quickly tracked the man accused of targeting police officers and their families in February.

"The suspect that stole the vehicle matched the description. He crashed the car and then took off," San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.

As he barricaded himself in an empty cabin, the man believed to be Dorner fired a .50-caliber sniper rifle, shooting two deputies, killing one of them.

Dorner tried to escape by throwing a smoke grenade at officers. Police also deployed smoke grenades as a screen so the wounded could be evacuated.

The resort town of Big Bear had been the focus of the manhunt since last Thursday, when a burned-out truck belonging to Dorner was found in the area.

Weapons, survival gear and a gas mask were also found.

As media and SWAT teams descended on the town, police say Dorner hid in plain sight in an unoccupied condo across the road from their command post.