LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department will reopen its investigation into the 2007 episode that led to the firing of Christopher J. Dorner, the former police officer who is wanted in three killings, department officials said Saturday night.
Mr. Dorner pledged revenge against Los Angeles police officers in a manifesto he posted online, in which he also claimed that racism in the department had led to his dismissal. He is wanted in connection with the killing of a former police captain’s daughter and her fiancé last Sunday and the shooting death of a Riverside, Calif., police officer on Thursday morning.
“I am aware of the ghosts of the L.A.P.D.’s past, and one of my biggest concerns is that they will be resurrected by Dorner’s allegations of racism within the department,” Chief Charlie Beck said in a written statement.
“Therefore, I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner’s allegations regarding his termination,” he said. “I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their Police Department is transparent and fair in all the things we do.”
The killings and Mr. Dorner’s online manifesto have reopened old wounds for some black residents here, even as they condemned the violence. For decades, the Los Angeles Police Department was known nationwide for racism and corruption. And memories are still fresh of the riots in 1992 that followed the beating of a black man, Rodney King, by white police officers. The beating was caught on videotape and broadcast around the country.
In explaining why he chose to reopen Mr. Dorner’s case, Chief Beck acknowledged his department’s difficult history.
“The Los Angeles Police Department has made tremendous strides in gaining the trust and confidence of the people we serve,” he said in his statement, and he conceded that “Dorner’s actions may cause a pause in our increasingly positive relationship with the community.”
Mr. Dorner, who joined the Police Department in 2005, was fired in 2008 for giving false statements, after he accused his training officer of kicking a suspect. He sued the department for wrongful termination, and lost at trial and again on appeal.
The decision to review Mr. Dorner’s termination marks a reversal from the tone Chief Beck struck just two days ago, when he was asked about Mr. Dorner’s accusations of racism at a news conference.
“You’re talking about a homicide suspect who has committed atrocious crimes,” he said. “If you want to give any attribution to his ramblings on the Internet, go right ahead. But I do not.”
Asked about Mr. Dorner’s efforts to clear his name, Chief Beck said, point blank, “It’s not going to happen.”
Joe Domanick, at professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism, and author of “To Protect and To Serve,” a history of the Los Angeles Police Department, said that Chief’s Beck and his predecessor as police chief, William Bratton, had gone a long way toward repairing relations with the black and Latino communities in Los Angeles.
But, he added, “Old suspicions die hard.”
“The history of the L.A.P.D. with the African-American community has been so fraught with mistrust and abuse and hatred on both sides,” Mr. Domanick said. “Charlie Beck is a very savvy guy, who really understands community relations and community policing. Right now, it’s in his interest to quell these rumors.”
An episode on Thursday morning, in which two women delivering newspapers in Torrance, Calif., were shot by Los Angeles police officers who mistook their vehicle for Mr. Dorner’s pickup truck, made the need for Chief Beck to reach out to the community even greater, Mr. Domanick said.
One of the women, Emma Hernandez, 71, who was struck by two bullets in her back, was released from the hospital on Friday night, according to her lawyer. Her daughter, Margie Carranza, 47, suffered an wound to her hand. Chief Beck met with the two women on Saturday and told them that the department had arranged for the donation of a new truck for them, Cmdr. Andrew Smith said.
Their lawyer, Glen T. Jonas, said their pickup truck was hit with dozens of rounds, though he could not confirm exactly how many. Los Angeles police officers were investigating the shooting, officials said, and would not release details.
Police officials here on Saturday also announced the formation of a task force that will bring together officers from Los Angeles, Irvine, and Riverside as well as from the F.B.I., the United States Marshal Service and other agencies in the hunt for Mr. Dorner.
The search has already taken law enforcement officers from dozens of agencies, including from San Diego and Riverside and Nevada.
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