Let me preface this post with the fact that I live, presently, with two LEOs [my inlaws-- both of whom are firearms instructors]. I have nothing but respect for those who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect our society at large. I think there are 100 great cops for every single shady cop in our country.
First, the fact is that Dorner was a volatile individual who had proven, through his own actions, to have no value for the lives of police officers and their families. This man created his own problems-- from those he had as an LEO until yesterday's shootout and fire. He blamed everybody else for everything in his own life and apparently never learned that violence doesn't solve problems. He simply existed in a la-la-land with a tally sheet in his brain keeping score. He refused to take responsibility for his actions and instead blamed it all on A, B,C, etc.
This man created a situation in which there was a clear and present danger to LE and civilians over the last week. He killed one officer, injured another yesterday and at least one reporter [innocent citizen] was in the line of fire. His goal from the beginning was clear. He wanted to KILL LEOs and their families. He proved he wasn't BSing by committing the acts he had done.
Law enforcement needed to end this event with aggressive, offensive tactics in order to eliminate the threat of imminent danger to 10s of people. Up until then, Dorner had the upper hand, element of surprise and used those things to AMBUSH LEOs.
Not only did he commit egregious criminal actions against numerous people, he virtually held Southern California hostage for a week. People were genuinely concerned for their safety. Just because he'd limited his attacks to people related to LEOs and didn't mean his next act of violence would continue that way. Thankfully, he didn't harm the other three individuals he encountered yesterday-- but he could have very easily.
At the point in which he'd holed up in a cabin he had already committed at least 4 murders, arson, kidnapping or false imprisonment, fraud [plates], and two counts of breaking & entering, battery, two counts of grand theft auto. Add to this fact that two of his victims were LE and he threatened each and every officer with grave bodily harm. Personally, someone who has committed so many violations of law over the last week and a half, gets NO RESPECT from me. The purpose of his violence was to impart fear on a massive scale-- the precise act of which is the definition of terrorism. The dude was a terrorist.
He seized numerous attempts to ambush LE officers with deadly force. They knew he was at the very least extremely unstable. From the sounds of the gunfight, I'm pretty sure he also possessed an automatic weapon of some kind. I don't know anyone who can get off that many rounds using a semi-auto. Automatic weapons-- aka machine guns-- are illegal to possess and gave him yet another unfair advantage against the cops. LE was given little choice in the matter-- their response [until he was in the last cabin] had all been in the suspects game. He was controlling the action, these were HIS decisions that led to his own end. Without any signs of surrendering he continued to shoot LEOs. He had more than one opportunity to give himself up and he didn't take those opportunities. He continued to wreak havoc and posed a CLEAR and PRESENT danger to everyone in the area-- by his own account.
Perhaps I am unsympathetic to his "side" of the story because I grew up in Corona, my family's business is in Riverside and I spent more time at in the mountains of Big Bear snowboarding as a young adult, than at home. All of these tragedies occured in places I care deeply about [my sister's school was on lockdown due to this situation, the Riverside PD officer was shot 1 block from my family's workplace. Regardless, this situation was all his own fault. He could have stopped it at any time but he continued to target innocent LEOs and others.