Christopher Dorner

[Peter Lemkin]

The search has spread to Arizona, Nevada and Northern Mexico in addition to Southern California.

...a memorable college buddy, said James Usera of his fellow Southern Utah University Thunderbirds:

"He was well-spoken, educated, rational. I didn't think he was moody or showed anything that would indicate he had mental health issues," Usera said. "My friendship with Mr. Dorner was extremely positive."

Usera, now a lawyer in Salem, Ore., spent all day Thursday recalling his two-year friendship with Dorner.

A self-proclaimed "white boy" from Alaska, Usera befriended Dorner on the football field in rural Utah in the spring of 1999 on the Thunderbirds scout team.

"I was a fullback he was a tailback and we had a lot of fun doing that," Usera said. "We got a lot of compliments from coaches being hard workers."

And "hard worker" was certainly one of the phrases that described the Christopher Dorner he knew more than a decade ago, Usera said.

In 2008, Usera recalls a phone call from Dorner "out of the blue" that lasted about 15 minutes. The call didn't seem odd, despite being the first time he'd heard from Dorner in seven years.

Usera said that while they both vented about work, Dorner didn't call for legal advice or even hint at any major issues with LAPD.

"He did mention some employee grievances he had with the LAPD, and obviously seemed concerned about the employment issue, but maybe `concerned' is too strong of a word because it just sounded like typical stress from his job," Usera said.

Usera was described by Dorner as "the most cynical/blatant/politically incorrect friend a man can have" who "never sugarcoated the truth." In his 114-word rant to Usera, he ended with: "I love you bro."

But Usera was just one of the people Dorner specifically named in his more than 11,000-word manifesto that lamented on his three-year career with the LAPD and the corruption and racism he believed permeated the organization.

"Mr. Dorner was from Southern California and I was from Alaska, so being at SUU, which is set in a rural, predominantly white Mormon town, one of the things that connected us was our shock to the social demographics of the place," Usera said. "It was different to what we were used to and so we could relate to each other."

Usera recalled Dorner complaining about instances of discrimination, but nothing that alarmed Usera during their college years.

"He is a person who believed that racism is alive and well in the United States, not just in Utah," Usera said, "but while it is something he mentioned on some occasions, I never saw him get irate about it."

Usera said that while he knows people are trying to pinpoint exactly what turned Dorner into a suspected killer, he can't help with that.

"People are looking for predictors, but I just never recognized anything that would indicate he was unstable in any fashion," Usera said. "He seemed normal, and I know that's not a great descriptor, but that was who he was to me."

Usera said Thursday afternoon that he hadn't read Dorner's manifesto in full but from what he's been told by reporters it is all shocking.

"It seems very out of character. The individual I knew was a good guy and was upstanding," he said.