Alleged Police Scanner Recording of Dorner Shootout: "Seven burners deployed and we have a fire."

[NickB79]

6. As opposed to just waiting him out?

One man, no hostages, nowhere to go, in a mountain cabin.

Cut the electricity and he won't have any way to run a gas furnace or pump water (cabins generally aren't hooked up to city water and rely on an electric well pump and propane heating). No way to flush a toilet. He can't go outside to get firewood or snow for water for fear of being shot by a sniper.

Within a few days, the cabin would be frozen, he'd be out of water, and he'd either have to surrender or die in a hail of bullets. Theoretically he could try to play sniper and shoot at a few cops outside first, but you can bet they had multiple snipers of their own zeroed in on every window and door of that house.

It was a botched operation from start to finish.