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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Manhunt for Dorner Continues Near Big Bear Mountain; States Have Declared State of Emergencies in Areas Likely to Be Affected by Upcoming Storm

Aired February 08, 2013 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Erin, thanks.

Good evening, everyone.

Two big stories tonight. High stakes in both of them. The manhunt for a rogue ex-cop and suspected triple killer. We just got these surveillance shots of them. Christopher Dorner, his name of course, taken January 28th outside a hotel in California.

There is also exclusive video on a firing range as an LAPD cadet. We also have new information on the manhunt and we look into exactly what Dorner's grievance is with the LAPD, why he was removed from the police force and why he says it was due to corruption. We will investigate that.

Also, here in the east, of course, the snow, possibly more snow than anyone has seen in a generation falling all day and starting to fall even harder tonight. The forecast calling for nearly three feet in places. High winds blowing, get this, nearly 5,000 flights grounded. Amtrak shut down in the northeast. Travel bans, emergency orders in effect. People are being warned, take this seriously because the worst is expected to unfold in the hours ahead. We have a team of correspondents throughout the northeast and back in the weather center. We'll also be on live from 10:00 to midnight.

Let's begin with the storm that is really hitting hard in Massachusetts. Our Jason Carroll is in Boston. Ali Velshi is in town of Dennis Port out on Cape Cod.

Jason, what's going on where you are?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, right now, we're experiencing near white-out conditions in Boston, Massachusetts. We're in south Boston, along a side street here. You can see how even though you've got some folks who are just walking the dogs, walking out here, for the most part, streets are completely empty.

I want to show you a problem that's going on over here. As you know, the state has access to some 4,000 vehicles, snow plows like this one, but this plow is experiencing what we witnessed across the city. He's stuck. He came into this church parking lot. Was going to plow it, got halfway through, but the conditions proved to be too much, so he's been struggling to get out of that particular position for the past 20 minutes or so.

But again, Anderson, there is a fleet of some 5,000 vehicles like this that are out on the streets throughout the state, plowing roads. Plowing the primary routes, plowing parking lots and secondary routes like the one that you see here. It looks like he's finally going to make his way out of here, but we're going to move back just a little bit. As you know, Anderson, in addition to the fleet of equipment that they have out in the streets, the governor has also enacted a plan banning basically all vehicles on the streets except for emergency vehicles. That has certainly helped. It's kept a number of people off the street out here in Boston, in Massachusetts, as the storm continues to barrel down. I can tell you just from the experience here, it's an icy, wet, blinding, bitter type of snow. It just hits your face, it's painful being out here. So this is a lesson to people who are watching who are thinking about coming out, seeing what the conditions are like. Stay inside. If you're thinking about driving, you can see this is a plow. Heavy equipment, heavy tires, and this plow is still stuck -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jason, how long has it been like this where you are? I mean, the conditions there are much worse than it is in New York right now.

CARROLL: Well, I have been out here since about 4:00 or 5:00, Anderson, and with each passing hour, it's steadily gotten worse. And what we have been using as a gauge has been the snow. When I first came out here, it's been pretty much like this. You can see it here, like a sticky type of snow. It's very great to make a snowball, if you will, but very much later on as the temperatures continue to drop, the snow here is going to become much more powder like. And as it becomes more powder like and we get wind gusts like this, conditions are going to become worse and more blinding, if you will. In fact, the wind gusts have been so strong at Logan airport, I know, that they were clocking wind gauges up to 50 miles per hour. So, the conditions are just going to continue to get worse with each passing hour.

COOPER: Jason, it look like it's moving horizontally which makes it incredibly unpleasant and difficult. Do you know how long it's supposed to last at this level or even worse?

CARROLL: We're hearing that the conditions that we're experiencing now are supposed to get even worse and will continue for the next several hours. So we're not going to be looking for relief until at least 3:0 a.m., 4:00 a.m., and in terms of the amount of snowfall, we're looking at anywhere between two and three inches per hour. That's what we have been experiencing out here so far. It's nice when you get a bit of a break from the gusts like right now, but the conditions are really tough, Anderson.

COOPER: And Jason, we're looking at the truck behind you with the snow plow struggling to get out of there. How long have they been stuck? When a snow plow is stuck, that's not a good sign.

CARROLL: What's interesting about that, is he came - this is he try to come to the this driveway that you see over here, Anderson. He got stuck here for a few minutes, decided to come around the other end, so he did that. Swung around the other end, came through plowing here. He was doing fine. He actually plowed this area over there, doesn't really look like it because again, he's been here for about the past 20 minutes or so, but the snow is coming down in such a rate, it covers what he plows. He moved over to that section you see here, and immediately got stuck. So, his car keeps turning from one direction to another direction. I think he's going to be here, actually, Anderson, for quite some time. Possibly, as long as we are here.

COOPER: Jason, stick with us. I want to bring in Ali Velshi in Dennis Port, Massachusetts.

Ali, the worst is still to come where you are, right?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's getting a lot worse. It's a bit of a harbinger of what Jason is going to get. Earlier, Anderson, we would be out here for a few minutes and I would be completely drenched. Now the snow doesn't even stick to me. Like ice pellets that hit you and bounce off. I wouldn't call it powder yet. It's sticky, like getting a facial out here.

Here's the ocean, you can see the water is getting rougher. Probably 20 feet to go before we get to high tide, which will probably be in a couple hours. Let me give you for a viewers a little geography of where I am. I'm in Dennis Part, Cape Cod. I'm at the bottom, halfway down the south side of Cape Cod, about 30 miles to my east this way is Chatham. That's the bottom right corner of Cape Cod getting heavier winds than we are right now.

Over that way is providence over there, and then Jason is sort of northwest of me right now. This is south, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. What we've got right now is a high tide that's coming in, in the next couple hours and the worst of the storm, as Jason said, coming in after midnight. We're not getting the accumulation they're getting in Boston because we have a ground temperature issue here.

Chad can tell you more about this, but it was -- it was a little bit warm al day, so we were getting what was rain most of the day. Even with the snow, we have had very, very heavy snowfall all day, but there's not much accumulation here, a couple inches. The issue is that it's a lot of it was melting as it got down, but the snowfall is very heavy. We're getting accumulation on the streets. A lot of concerns about power outages. I have seen the lights flicker around here, but for the moment we still have power. This is only going to get worse over the course of the next few hours, Anderson.

COOPER: Ali, I kind want to ask you who you upset to get this assignment because it looks miserable where you are. I mean, the cold, the wet, the storm surge, that's a big concern there, right?

VELSHI: Yes. Yes, it is. Look, we are -- this is Nantucket sound. It's part of the Atlantic ocean. But because it's a sound, you're not going to get the worst of it over here. If you went east to Chatham, then you have that part of Cape Cod that goes from here up here. That northeast coast is where they're going to see the danger of greater flooding. But, all of the coast of Massachusetts, all the way down Cape Cod, and then down all the way to New York, all of that is in a flood zone. So, even this area we're concerned. But, it would have to be several feet before that happened.

And Anderson, I thank you for asking how it is I drew this straw. I'm really supposed to be the extra guy when you have everyone assigned to stuff. Put Velshi somewhere just to make sure there is coverage. I'm not quite sure how I have become a storm magnet.

COOPER: Yes. You're the financial guy. I'm not sure -- what you're doing out there? You're doing a good job.

VELSHI: Let the bosses know that.

COOPER: Yes, please. How bad is the wind there because it looks like it's almost sways where you are?

VELSHI: Yes. It's completely sideways. They are going sideways for about an hour now. There are two airports here. Over Chatham, we're measuring winds above -- whoa. Transformer blew about probably about a mile due north of me right now. Big transformer just went out.

Chatham is measuring winds over 30 miles per hour gusting well over 50 miles per hour. We have measured sustained at Hyannis, which is just next door, a little while ago, around 30 miles per hour gusting to about 50. We're expecting winds to go sustained 30 to 50 over the course of the next few hours. So, we have a long way to go and it's already moving sideways. It's very, very harsh and bitter. There's no one walking around here, let me guarantee you that. You would have to be a real masochist to be out in this and not covering it for the news. It's only officials and police and media around.

COOPER: That's good news, certainly, that people are staying indoors. Al, thank you.

Poppy Harlow is in Providence, Rhode Island for us.

Poppy, how is it there?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think you can see, Anderson. I think I may have drawn as short a stick as Ali drew on this one. Honestly, the wind gusts are so severe here. It's gotten so much worse in the last hour.

Here is where you see a lot of the snow accumulation. I want to set viewers up with where we are. This is the heart of Providence, Rhode Island. This is downtown from in front of city hall. There is not one soul in sight. The only vehicles that come down are plows every 20 minutes or so to try to clear it out.

I talked to the governor today. I talked to the mayor of Providence. I went to the emergency center here and the big concern right now here is how wet and thick this snow is. That is because it is landing on the power lines here, and it can take them down easily. They are pretty sure they're going to have power outages here. The question is how severe are those power outages going to be? You have temperatures now below 30 degrees here. They have shelters set up, but they're very worried because, Anderson, they saw what happened in the wake of Sandy with power out for weeks on end. People really stranded, and they're very worried here about what this consistently wet, heavy snow is going to mean. They were hoping that this storm would bring drier snow because that really is much better when you talk about the power lines here. And that's not at all what they're getting.

COOPER: Yes, and it just looks terrible out there.

Poppy, we're going to continue to check in with you. As I said, for our viewers, we're going to be on again from 10:00 to midnight all the way through following all of the storm. Because it is supposed to only get worse over the course of the next several hours.

Also, of course, the other story, big story we're following. California, lives are on the line. Much of southern California is on edge tonight. That's because this man, ex-cop and suspected killer Christopher Dorner is still at large, possibly in the snowy mountains east of Los Angeles. And they have been seeing a lot of snow in the mountains. Police in Irvine, California released these two surveillance photos. They were taken on the 28th of January outside a hotel.

We also have exclusive video of Dorner taken at a police academy shooting range during his time as a cadet. These days, he's on a self-proclaimed mission of revenge against the police force who he said let him go. Obviously, we blur the other people on the firing line because they have expressed concern that Dorner will go after him. His alleged rampage has taken three lives.

Police, we should point out, have mistakenly shot two people in search of him, shot at least one more. They were in vehicles they say looked like his. We'll be taking a look shortly at Dorner's long list of grievances whether there's, in fact, anything to them. Why was he originally kicked off the force? We are going to investigate that.

First though, let's get the latest in the ongoing hunt for him. Randi Kaye has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite the snow and drop in temperatures, search teams climb to higher elevations, hoping to find Christopher Dorner, the man who has eluded them for days.

Here at Big Bear mountain, more than 100 officers are searching for Dorner. They're using dogs, too. They went door to door last night without any luck. So, now they're focusing on a number of abandoned cabins high up the mountain, wondering if Dorner set up camp there.

SWAT teams used snow cats to get up the mountain. Others jumped inside armored personnel carriers.

JOHN MCMAHON, SHERIFF, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Certainly, there has been time to get out of here, but we're not sure if he has in fact left. There's a number of places up on the mountain that we haven't gotten to yet that we're continuing to search.

KAYE: The search is massive. Bear mountain which is in the San Bernardino national forest, stretches hundreds of miles. But police and SWAT teams are up against more than some treacherous terrain. Dorner is a trained marksman with survival skills. He could have them in his sights before they spot him.

MCMAHON: It's extremely dangerous. I explained to them to be very careful, but our folks are highly trained.

KAYE: Snowy weather isn't making the job any easier. The sheriff was hoping to put his choppers in the air. They're equipped with thermal imaging and would make spotting Dorner on the ground easier if he's still here. But, given the snow and the poor visibility, the helicopters were grounded, at least for now.

Dorner's burned out truck which authorities recovered Thursday on a mountain trail has been removed and is being processed for clues. And those footprints leading away from the truck, officials now say they stopped suddenly when they reached frozen ground. Another dead end.

With the search in its second day, authorities have so many questions. They want to know if Dorner has any ties to big bear. Had he ever visited here or maybe had a cabin here. They're also trying to figure out if he had come here earlier, before the shooting spree, to stash supplies. And if he did, how long will those supplies last? No matter the answer, police aren't leaving here until they're sure he's left the mountain or they find him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Randi joins me now.

Dorner's mother's house was searched. Do we know anything about that, what was found, if anything?

KAYE: We know they had a search warrants. They spoke with the mother before and his sister. But this time, Anderson, they went back with a search warrant. They had a forensic team with them. They looked at her computers. They looked at some personal items.

But, from what we understand, Christopher Dorner didn't live there. He was sort of estranged from his mother, as he had written about in his manifesto. But, he was in there in high school, he lived there in college a little bit, and he's been here and there. So, all we know is that they went through the computers. They would not say what they found.

COOPER: And Randi, you know, around this time last night, Chad Myers was saying a storm was coming. Snow is coming. All day long I have been looking at reports and press conferences officials had, and the conditions looked awful all day long. How is that hampering the search? KAYE: It's been pretty tough. I mean, it's dangerous for a number of reasons, Anderson. One, now, they think he might have 30 guns. So, that makes it dangerous enough. But right now, they're also still out searching. They're going to keep teams out here until dark and then they'll be back in the morning.

The snow is coming down very, very fast, very quickly. The roads are treacherous. A lot of roads are closed. But it's amazing to see because they're still determined to find him. But they say that one of the nice things ability the snow, even though it is so dangerous and treacherous is actually the fact they can follow footprints. They found some footprints, turned out to be a cross country skier, but they're looking at those at one point today. So, they are hoping maybe this will help them find his tracks or find Christopher Dorner, at some point either overnight or they would give another go tomorrow.

COOPER: And Randi, certainly, if I was living in that area, I would be concerned. There have to be a lot of people in houses that are pretty isolated and a lot of empty houses from what I hear as well?

KAYE: Right, because this is a vacation resort. So, a lot of the homes are empty right now. They look at a door that may have been broken in. But, the thing is that the ski resort itself is open. They're not very concerned that he's a threat to the ski resort. I mean, I was walking around today covering the story here on the mountain and I passed snowboarders and skiers, and they're going about their business. Meanwhile, there's teams of SWAT teams out here and teams of police and FBI out here trying to find this guy who took out one of their own.

COOPER: Randi, thanks. I appreciate the latest on that. We will continue to check in with you throughout the evening.

Joining me now is John Miller who works in counterterrorism and criminal intelligence for the LAPD. Currently, he is senior correspondent at CBS this morning.

As I said, we obtained this video of him on the shooting range. It's pretty short. But does it give you any sense of his skill level? Do you know much about his skill level, how proficient he is?

JOHN MILLER, CBS THIS MORNING SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: I mean, you have to -- you have to obtain a certain proficiency to pass that test. And that's, you know, I think above 85 percent.

But you know, you look at that. That is the LAPD's training academy, which is up in the San Fernando valley. I have shot in that particular range and qualified on that range for many, many hours in the LAPD training. And they spend a good deal of time explaining how to handle that weapon, really, they do it so repeatedly it becomes muscle memory.

COOPER: What are you hearing about the search as it is today? Anything new you have been hearing? MILLER: Well, a couple of things. I mean, number one, as Randi kind of pointed out, the fact that his truck ends up there on fire, on Big Bear mountain, is significant. You don't go there by accident. It's not a wrong turn that you make. It's far from L.A. and far from San Diego. So it's indicative that he went there with a purpose.

Now, his family owned property there years ago. They don't have it now, but what that tells us is he's got a familiarity with the area. That he went there with some purpose. He probably didn't get to where he wanted to go. He didn't dump that truck there because he need to get rid of it there. He broke the axle on those rough roads and couldn't go any further. He set the truck on fire. There were cupboards of ammunition inside but no weapons which means the long guns, the assault weapon, pistols, and whatever ammunition he could carry depending on how far he had to move and hike, probably went with him. So that opens a number of possibilities about where he would be going and what he would intend to do there.

COOPER: Also, the police in this manhunt, they have actually shot two civilians who were -- my understanding is they were in a truck delivering newspapers and police in Torrance shot at another vehicle they felt -- what do you know about that and how does that get investigated?

MILLER: Well, let's talk about the incidents and we'll have to do that somewhat superficially because all of the facts aren't in. But in the first case, with the newspaper delivery people, you have a truck that's on the highway that roughly fits the description that everybody is looking for of the suspect's vehicle.

COOPER: We're showing the truck there.

MILLER: It gets off the exit, and then it starts proceeding down a street within blocks of one of the targets on his hit list.

COOPER: On his manifesto.

MILLER: In fact, one of the people who was involved in the case of his dismissal. As it pulls into that street, the truck pulls off the headlights, slows down, and is cruising down the street.

So, here's where you have to go to mindset. The mindset of the officers are the truck went from being suspicious to being very, very suspicious. Now, let's frame this. The people inside the truck aren't doing anything wrong. They're delivering newspapers and this is part of their routine, so it's not to suggest anything on their part.

But, if you put yourself in the mindset of the officers, the truck enters the block, dims the headlights, is moving very slowly towards the target's house. The last police officers who confronted the truck that the officers have in their mind, which is Dorner's truck, didn't get to do a car stop. He came -- he stopped them, basically. He came out of the truck, came over the hood, opened fire with a semiautomatic assault weapon. Peppered their car with bullets, so the officers' mindset is this a highly dangerous stop we're going to make.

From there, what happened, what commands they gave or didn't give, you heard what the lawyer said.

COOPER: The lawyer said they didn't give commands and identified themselves and just started shooting.

MILLER: Whether that truck, you know, was asked to stop, I mean, they certainly they didn't have to identify themselves. They're in a black and white police car and police uniforms. So, I mean, if you look at the footage there, and those were the officers who made the stop and they were the ones with the doors open. There was no mystery to who they were. The question was what commands did they give, what was heard, wasn't heard, and what did the people in the truck do? Not to suggest that the people in the truck did anything wrong, but what this is or the shooting that happens down the road where the truck is making the turn, one officer tells it to turn, the other rams into it because he's hearing the radio traffic about a vehicle, which is probably the other one.

What this tells us is that the tension level among the police who have been fired on by this guy, who have gone from the hunters to the hunted in some sense, and the level of -- the level of tension and the reaction -- it's a difficult situation.

COOPER: What do you make of the fact, we have really gone a day without any new sightings, any more information or hearing anything from him, no more shootings that we know of.

MILLER: Couple of possible things. So that takes us back to the dumps the truck. And he starts moving towards his intended location. Does he have an intended location? In the arc of his planning, and he's done some on the front end of this, including pre-staging it with packages to the media, victim, you know, pre-incident surveillance and so on.

On the back end, has he understood that when his truck gets too hot to use, even with different plates, he has a stash vehicle prepositioned in an area that's remote enough but he's familiar enough with. That's possibility one.

Possibility two, he's familiar with the area, he wants to get in a house, lay low for a couple days, one of the empty vacation houses and plan his next move, or does he get into a house where they buy a new car, take their old car, and stick it in the driveway of the vacation house as a second vehicle. Does he get into a house, obtain the keys to that vehicle and he's already gone?

But, you see the San Bernardino sheriff was aggressive about moving people there, moving them quickly and in large numbers, trying to do a perimeter they could cordon off and searching that area of 400 homes to say this is a real opportunity to try and find him, and that's, as Randi told us, still ongoing.

COOPER: And certainly the weather is not cooperating. That makes it all the more difficult for all of the officers involved. John Miller, I appreciate you being with us. Thank you very much.

MILLER: Thanks very much.

COOPER: All right. interesting stuff. We are going to continue, obviously, to follow the man hunt tonight. and is said, we are going to be live again from 10:00 eastern tonight all the way through midnight. Let us know what you think. Obviously, I'm on twitter right now @Andersoncooper. I will be tweeting ahead.

Also, we're going to take you back on the snowy streets around the northeast. We are checking with Chad Myers, try to give you the big picture of the very big storm. How long is it going to last and where are the worst parts going to be affected? There's a look at Boston right now. And again, you can see it's getting worse than just a short time ago.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back. Take a look. New pictures out of Boston. Folks having fun in the snow you. Think that looks like a snowman to the left. And as I said Jason Carroll was pointing out, it's thick, heavy snow. Actually, kind of ideal for making snowballs. It looks like some people are making the most of that, as well as walking their dogs. A lot of dogs left out fun here in the snow.

If you're one of about 40 million people, though, tonight, you're getting a look at this up close. Winter storm for the history books. And it's not fun for a lot of folks traveling. It is big, it is bad. Breaking news up and down the northeast seaboard. The forecast calls for nearly three feet of snow in some places. Nearly 5,000 flights have already been canceled. If you're sitting in an airport right now in the northeast I'm sorry.

Boston is in the bull's eye, of course. Jason is there with the latest. It looks to me even in the 20s minutes since I talked to you, it looks like it's getting worse, or is it my imagination?

CARROLL: No, it's not your imagination. Conditions are most definitely worse. In fact, just a little while ago, you remember there was a plow that came up here that search parking lot. He got caught. He finally made his way out. I asked if he would talk to us about his experience. He said he was embarrassed he got caught, but I think it's fair to say that a lot of folks in Boston are grateful that guys like him are out here plowing the streets, trying to make them safer for a lot of people. So, he went on about his business, went on to plow another street.

And I want you to take a look at this street here in south Boston. Because this is an example, Anderson, of what people are going to wake up to in the morning. You see these cars here? I mean, when I first got here, it was barely a dusting. Now look at it. As the plows are coming down the streets, they're creating mounds on both sides. These cars by tomorrow morning are going to all but be covered by snow.

So, tomorrow, expects a lot of people coming out with shovels trying to dig out from the mess that's created tonight and overnight. And in terms of conditions right now, it's basically what we experienced earlier, but it seems like with each passing hour, the conditions get even worse. It's just a biting type of snow that blows in your face. It's like ice pellets, thousands of them, hitting you over and over again. When the gusts come up, obviously, it gets much, much worse. When there's a relief from the wind gusts, you know, when you're standing out here, at least you're able to talk and form a sentence.

But it's extremely difficult to be out here. No wonder why the governor has put forth that order banning all vehicle travel except for emergency vehicles. People seem to be heeding that warning as we headed out to the location, and as we have been out here, we haven't seen any real passenger vehicles out here, just emergency vehicles. But as you saw, Anderson, even the emergency vehicles out here, one got stuck. That's just a testament to the types of problems people are experiencing out here, and the conditions that we're dealing with -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jason, stay with me because I want to bring in Chad Myers here, but I also want you to hear what Chad is saying and maybe talk to you about a little bit, Jason.

So Chad, you're in the weather center. Obviously, Jason is seeing some bad stuff right now. Give me the big picture.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Jason is in this brighter white band that's kind of easy to see, just plowing right into Boston. The big picture is that the low is still well to the south of him. As the low gets closer later tonight, when it makes its closest approach, somewhere between I would say midnight and 2:00, that's when the weather will get the worst. The reason Jason is feeling the stinging ice instead of just a snow flake is some of the snowflakes are falling through the sky, hitting a layer of warm layer, above 32. And then -- go ahead, Jason.

COOPER: That's right. They're moving out of the way because a car is coming. Go ahead, Chad.

MYER: All right. So, as the snowflake is coming down, it's melting and then refreezing into kind of an ice ball, but these ice balls are going to not pile up as much as snow. So, that may reduce the amount of snow, the inches of snow that Jason gets throughout the night. It's not over by any means for Boston. You're going to be in it for at least another ten hours.

What you see is what you get for ten more hours to come. Very heavy snowfall across parts of southeastern Connecticut, into Rhode Island. We're seeing a little of a break up in the snow for New York city, but there's more snow out to the west. It's not done yet. I could easily see New York getting another four to six inches of snow. The problem with New York today is that it was kind of a slushy mix for a lot of the day, and you wasted your precept potential on rain. That's the good news. That is not going to be the news, not going to be the story east of there where everywhere you see pink is a foot of snow or more. And that 20 to 30 is still to come in some spots.

CARROLL: I'm not sure - Jason Carroll, I'm not sure you wanted to hear there's another ten hours of this stuff headed your way, but that apparently seems to be the reality for all of the folks in Boston and around the area.

Jason, we'll continue to check in with you. Try to stay warm if you can. As always, you can find more on the weather and everything else tonight going online at CNN.com.

Next, more on the manhunt for Christopher Dorner and his murderous manifest. So, we're going to look at the grievances as at the heart of all this. Remember, he was kicked off the LAPD. We're going to look at the reasons why he was kicked off. He said it was about corruption on the force and he spoke about against the blue wall of silence, if you will. We are going to look at exactly what he's talking about and of course we'll follow the blizzard all throughout the hour.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, we have seen what it looks like in Boston and Rhode Island. This is Greenwich, Connecticut. More on the blizzard, the latest coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: More now on the breaking news in Southern California. The manhunt for ex-cop and suspected triple murderer, Christopher Dorner, as you might know, he sent me a parcel, I learned about it yesterday.

That contained a bullet riddled keepsake coin from former L.A. Police Chief Bill Bratton. It also included a DVD with testimony from the man at the center of the incident that Dorner said precipitated his firing from the LAPD.

The man, his name is Christopher Getler, says he was kicked by an LAPD officer, and Dorner apparently believes that Getler's account will somehow bolster his case against the police force.

Now it's a case he lays out in detail in a lengthy rambling manifesto. The question is, is there anything to it? We investigated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): The subject of Christopher Dorner's rage goes back to an incident in July of 2007. Dorner was out on patrol with a female officer, a veteran of the force, when they were dispatched to check on a report of a mentally unstable man named Christopher Getler.

Getler was refusing to leave the grounds of a hotel and after a struggle, Dorner and his partner subdued him. Then Dorner says his partner, who was white, unnecessarily kicked Getler, who was also white, twice in the chest and once in the face while he was being cuffed.

In the manifesto, Dorner writes the kick to the face left a visible injury on the left cheek below the eye. Unfortunately, after reporting it to supervisors and investigated, nothing was done. I had broken their supposed blue line.

The blue line he spoke of is a legendary unspoken code of conduct among police that states you never rat out a fellow officer. The LAPD did launch an internal investigation into Dorner's complaint, but found that, quote, "the alleged kicks had not occurred."

Dorner writes, quote, "The department stated that I lied and made up the report." Dorner was charged with making false statements and the LAPD Board of Rights found him guilty.

But according to Dorner, this was a result of corruption and retaliation on the part of the LAPD. "Terminating me for telling the truth of a Caucasian officer kicking a mentally ill man is disgusting," Dorner writes.

"With the discovery and evidence available, you will see the truth." The evidence Dorner points to is the testimony of Getler himself. Court documents show he told the LAPD he was kicked by a female police officer.

Getler's father also testified that his son told him about the attack. NBC4 Los Angeles spoke exclusively with Getler's father who said he remembers that night in 2007 when his son came home and told him he was kicked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two in the chest, the third one missed and got him on the face.

COOPER: "This is my last resort," Dorner writes. "The LAPD has suppressed the truth and it has now led to deadly consequences." But did the LAPD really suppress the truth. Court documents show the testimony of both Getler and his father was heard by the Board of Rights who say, quote, "While the board acknowledged that the testimony of Getler and his father indicated a kicking had occurred, Getler is schizophrenic."

The board did not find him to be a reliable witness and found his father's testimony was hearsay. The board also found the officer he accused of abuse was considering giving Dorner a negative review, and that he falsely alleged the kicks to stop working with her.

Dorner challenged his firing in the court of appeals but lost. But this incident is not Dorner's only problem with the LAPD. He also accuses officers of rampant racism, saying they used racial slurs on the job. He writes, quote, "The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days, it's gotten worse."

In his manifesto he promises, quote, "Terminating officers because they expose a culture of lying, racism, and excessive use of force will immediately change. The blue line will forever be severed and a cultural change will be implanted. You have awoken a sleeping giant."

Dorner promises violent retaliation against the LAPD until his name is cleared. Whether or not his claims are true, police say he is already delivering on that promise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Let's dig deeper now with former LAPD psychologist, Kris Mohandie. Kris, I'm wondering what -- when you hear, you know, his allegations against the LAPD, what do you think?

KRIS MOHANDIE, FORMER LAPD PSYCHOLOGIST: What I think is, you know, you have an issue, you bring it forward, and they investigate it. That's what happened here. This is a guy who can't let go of things. There's a long history of that going back in his background that he talks about.

And the fact that he's willing to cross the line himself in order to bring this issue forward is more problematic in many respects than some of the issues he's bringing forward. So it's -- there are these things that happen. There are people who bring these things forward, but his response to this process says more about him than the LAPD.

COOPER: As you -- you know, we haven't heard anything from him today. There haven't been that we know of, any other shooting incidents, no sightings of him as far as we know. Do you see any way that this ends other than with some sort of a shoot-out? Is it possible he would give himself up, do you think?

MOHANDIE: It is very possible that he would. That's what I hope. I hope that he understands that there are people who still care about him, that he values, that he respects that think for the right thing for him to do is to turn himself in.

He's got a greater chance of being heard, of having his story investigated and being taken seriously than to continue on a path of aggression and violence in which people will then discount what he has to say.

I think the greatest chance for him to be heard is to do just that, and that's my hope, that he'll hear the message from the people that care about him, and in his own heart, when he looks back on what he ultimately was sworn to do, is to protect the democracy that we live in, which involves not taking matters into one's own hands, hopefully he rediscovers that and does the right thing.

COOPER: I think that bears repeating and we know he's watched this program. He sent me this package. He wrote about me and other reporters in his manifesto. If in case he's watching the program tonight, I think it bears repeating from you that he has a better chance of getting people to hear his message, to hear his grievances, to hear his side of what he says happened to him on the LAPD police force, by giving himself up, than he does by trying to shoot it out.

MOHANDIE: That's correct. That's correct and that's my hope. He'll have the opportunity to tell his story, to be heard, to have a lot of opportunities to tell his story. And if it continues, I don't think that's going to happen. I think he's going to miss his chance, and I think he needs to take that chance and turn himself in.

COOPER: Kris Mohandie, I appreciate you being on tonight. There are a lot of stuff going on.

Just had the latest on the blizzard pummeling the northeast, our reporters are in the thick of it all across the region. They'll bring us the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Looking at the streets of Boston, really a white-out at this point. The winter storm is hitting hard up and down the northeast. The worst apparently is yet to come in Boston and elsewhere, already 45,000 people without power in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Ashleigh Banfield is in Greenwich, Connecticut tonight. What's it like there, Ashleigh?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Anderson? I'm going to show you what's showing up right where we are. That's Greenwich, Connecticut, for you. There's a travel ban, so you're not supposed to have your cars out on the road, but a couple ATVs came zooming by.

So let me give you the quick latest. The governor has said that we are just now entering the dangerous zone. This is when it's going to start getting bad. Accumulations are going to go up to about 5 inches an hour. You can see the snow behind me. It feels lighter than it has been all night.

Like I said, calm before the storm. The governor has been tweeting this stuff out. You can see the Board of Education behind me are clearing the steps away. The plows keep coming back just trying to keep up with it. Power has been a problem. We have been worried.

About 30 percent of the customers in Connecticut that are going to lose their power, that's what the governor said, we're already at 17,604. All of those power outages in Southeast Connecticut, right around where I am as well.

Metro North, those are the trains that get people in and out of New York City, all of the commuters who live here. Metro North suspended after 10:00 tonight. I have been doing this all day. The ruler, come over here so you can see where we're at. I believe, if I'm -- yes, we're still at James Polk. We're about six inches, but mark my words, we're expecting about 2 feet or so around here -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Ashleigh, I want to bring in Ali Velshi who is out in Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Again, in terms of the water coming in, Ali, what have you been seeing?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's gotten really rough, Anderson. You and I talked about 20 minutes ago or something. You'll catch the light behind me, see the surf coming. Look at that, the kind of thing we're seeing right now.

We're obviously not close yet to high tide. We're also not close to the worst of the storm coming in. As a result, this area all the way over from -- I'm going to draw it here with the top end of, you know, when you get into New England and that northeast part of Cape Cod down to the south coast of Cape Cod.

I'm right in the middle of that. I'm in Dennis Port in Cape Cod. So if you go west of me, you'll go to Providence where Poppy is, and all the way down to New York, all of that, there's a thin line through all of that on the coast, which is in a flood zone.

We're expecting that to happen. You combine that with the fact we have increasing winds up here, we're going to end up with somewhere -- Chad can tell you better than I can, but somewhere close to 40, maybe 50-mile-per-hour sustained winds.

Right now, we're not there. We're still in the 30-mile-per-hour range in terms of sustained winds. We heard a transformer blow nearby. This is all that snow that's coming down. It's getting weighted. Some of it was melting, becoming ice.

We have this kind of problem. There's nobody else on the roads. We went out. Our crews went out to get a glance to what is going on slightly inland from where we are. No people around on Cape Cod. Everybody is hunkered down, in their places and trying to keep warm, hoping that the power doesn't go out -- Anderson.

COOPER: We're seeing the wind and snow in front of the screen. Ali, appreciate it. We'll check in with you throughout this evening. There's an addition to our team. I want to introduce you. He's new to CNN, but he's certainly a familiar face to you, Chris Cuomo.

Everyone is incredibly excited that Chris has joined us. He's going to be filling in for Piers Morgan in the next hour starting about 14 minutes from now. He's out in Columbus Circle here in New York.

This is not about hazing the new guy, Chris. I want you to know that, having to be out in the blizzard, but I'm glad you're out there. How does it look out there right now?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you what, Anderson, right now, we have had several inches of accumulation. We're expecting somewhere between 5 to 7 in New York City. The wind is also whipping fairly well. That's what makes a blizzard. It's not about snow accumulation. It's about wind speed. We're hearing about wind speeds of 50, 60, 70, near hurricane speed in different parts of the northeast and that's why this could still be a very long night.

COOPER: And authorities have warned residents of some New York areas that were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, they could see flooding, right?

CUOMO: That's right. Because again of this wind element of the blizzard, they're worried about storm surge, high tide over most of the east coast will be sometime between now and closer to 10:00 p.m. So we have the watch, especially in the vulnerable areas because there's new construction, not a lot of infrastructure in place, and people who are barely holding on right now. The last thing they need is turbo charged snow.

COOPER: You know, New York was pretty unprepared for the big blizzard we had back in 2010. Have you seen trucks out there? I mean, do you know anything about what kind of steps the city has been taking to make sure that doesn't happen again?

CUOMO: Yes, it's a very interesting point, Anderson. You know, it seems like every year we have a 100-year storm now. There was Lee, Irene, of course, Sandy. Now the silver lining has been that New York City and especially New York State has overhauled emergency management.

You'll see one coming right behind me right now, right on cue, beautiful. So they're getting more assets and more importantly, Anderson, they're dealing with pre-deployment, which means they put things in place before the storm. Sounds like common sense, but it wasn't always done that way.

COOPER: Yes. It's good to see it out there. Chris, you're going to be anchoring in about 12 minutes so look forward to that. Again, welcome to CNN. Really glad you're here.

We continue to follow breaking developments in the search for Christopher Dorner. A lot of Southern California obviously is on alert right now. Police say they don't know where or when he may try to strike. For some, it feels like the sniper attacks that paralyzed the nation in 2002.

We're going to speak live to Charles Moose, a former police chief that became the face of that investigation about what a manhunt really entails.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Back to the breaking new, still no sign of Christopher Dorner, where he might be hiding. No way of knowing where he might strike next. Southern California on alert right now, the fear, uncertainty, reminds some of the sniper case that paralyzed the Washington, D.C. area back in 2002.

During that investigation, of course, the country got to know Charles Moose, the police chief in Montgomery County, Maryland. He joins us now. Thanks very much for being with us, Chief.

From your experience, what does it tell you that authorities not only haven't located him by now, but apparently, he hasn't launched another attack in the last 24 hours, what does that tell you?

CHARLES MOOSE, FORMER POLICE CHIEF, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND: It tells me that, you know, we always have to remember that police work is very difficult. You know, we want this instant gratification. We're dealing with a person who has thought this process out.

Apparently, he's not using drugs. He's not on alcohol, and he doesn't want anything. The fact that he only wants revenge says he has patience. That he's willing to operate at his own pace. We're used to people having a short time span.

We're used to them wanting money. I can remember the relief in some strange way when we found out that Malveaux and Muhammad wanted money because then we knew we were dealing with criminals.

And that there would be a process and an opportunity to talk to them to negotiate, but with this gentleman, it seems like there is no negotiation, only revenge, and it makes it a very difficult case.

COOPER: I think back and I covered the D.C. sniper case. I mean, you guys didn't know who you were searching for, so it make it all the more difficult. I suppose there is an advantage this time around in that they at least know who the suspect is, know what his training is, and what his -- what his training is, basically.

MOOSE: Yes, that does make it -- make it easier in some way, but you know, a lot of police work is about boredom. The rest is about confrontation. I think in this case, they may not be a confrontation because we're talking about someone willing to ambush.

That's a mentality that police officers aren't used to facing, an ambush where they're going to be hit unknown, hit from the blind side where they're not able to confront their adversary. So that brings a great deal of stress to the police officer, and I think that makes this case ten times more difficult.

COOPER: When you have a situation where police officers have been shot at and hit and killed, and at least one case, how do you try to sort of make sure that folks don't overreact and that we have had two civilians apparently shot.

One of them shot in the back, I think 20 or 30 shots were fired at the newspaper delivery people who were in a vehicle that was said to resemble the vehicle that this man had. As the chief of police, how do you try to send the message that you need to be on point, but you need to also be careful?

MOOSE: Well, I think police officers live under those circumstances every day. People do make mistakes. People do engage targets inappropriately and that has to be dealt with. I don't think that's going to be a common theme to this investigation. But I think that's something that police officers face and are trained to try to avoid on a daily basis, to not overreact, to not escalate a situation. But that did happen. We have to remember that, but again, this situation is different.

This situation, this gentleman has committed murder. He has no story to tell. He shouldn't be given any kind of forum. He's a murderer. He needs to be brought to justice. There's no forum for him to tell his story.

We just celebrated the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He changed a lot in this country and in his world. He didn't resort to violence. Violence is not the way to change things. This gentleman needs to be addressed.

He needs to come forth and face justice. Simply needs to go out to the victims, their families and their loved ones.

COOPER: Chief Moose, thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate it. It's good to see you again. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Let's go quickly back to the storm, 132,000 customers now without power in the affected area in Boston is being hit hard. Jason Carroll is there now. Jason, it is just getting worse and worse, man.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're definitely in the thick of it now. It's near white-out conditions. Take a look at the street. You saw what conditions were like before when I was talking to you earlier today. Try looking up the street there, Anderson. You can't even see it.

This is what people are dealing with. The plows are out in the roads. You saw a plow get stuck that plowed the parking lot here at this church in South Boston. Conditions are severe, and if what Chad Myers and the other meteorologists are saying, the conditions are just going to continue to get worse as we now experience near whiteout conditions here in Boston -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Chad Myers saying over the next really ten hours this thing is going to get worse and worse. We're going to be back on one hour from now at 10:00 Eastern time. We'll be on for two hours all the way live until midnight. A special two-hour edition of "360." Right now, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT," starts. Chris Cuomo is filling in for Piers. That's starts right now.