Here's video of police shouting "burn that motherfucker" and "burn him out" as Dorner was trapped.

[onenote]

339. He was identified as driving the truck by the guy from whom it was carjacked and the wardens that

shot at it. It was found outside the cabin. I'm not sure, but it was my understanding that the wardens that pursued the truck did see him exit the truck and head to the cabin. The person in the cabin shot and killed one sherriff that approached it.

As for the hostage claim -- when and where did this hostage come from. He had not been to that cabin before he broke into it after carjacking the truck; it was a very short period of time between the carjacking and his reaching the cabin. And we know he didn't have a hostage with him when he carjacked the truck and no one saw anyone in the truck with him. I don't think there is even a .0001% chance that he had a hostage.

As for kids or others in the cabin -- my understanding is that the police had spoken to the owner of the cabin and I suspect that they had a pretty good idea whether there was any real likelihood of anyone being in the cabin.

My point is that while nothing is ever one hundred percent certain, there was good reason for the police not to "wait out" Dorner as some have suggested. You never want the decisions to be put in the hand of the bad guy (and, yes, he was a bad guy). It is likely that he could have holed up in that cabin for quite some time. Trying to secure the cabin for a lengthy without putting more people at significant risk of being shot while trying to maintain a security perimeter that wasn't so porous as create a signficant risk that he might escape would be difficult if not impossible. The longer he was allowed to stay in the cabin, the greater the risk that he might booby trap the place. Also you alway want to be the one to decide when the fight starts -- waiting it out meant a greater risk that he might come out guns blazing, putting more people in harm's way.

I don't know if he killed himself before the fire started or not. And neither does anyone else posting about this. We may never know.