UPDATE 8:20 p.m.: Los Angeles police Detective Gus Villanueva confirmed to City News Service that fugitive Christopher Jordan Dorner was not found after a search at the Lowe's Home Improvement store at Nordhoff Street and Corbin Avenue.
"The store was searched and there was no evidence that Dorner was there,'' Villanueva said just after 8 p.m. "Personnel will be returning to their patrol duties shortly.''
UPDATE 8:12 p.m.: News media are reporting that Los Angeles police have issued an all-clear in the area of the Lowe's Home Improvement store in Northridge.
Andrew Blankstein, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, tweeted at 7:09 p.m.: The Lowe's incident is a "Code 4" ie non event, #LAPD sources say. Was a husband [and] wife dispute. There's your "asymmetrical" warfare. #LAPD
At 8:10 p.m. ABC7 tweeted: Authorities have cleared the scene at Lowe's in Northridge, where a sighting of Chris Dorner was reported.
KTLA and KNBC reported earlier that police considered the sighting a likely case of mistaken identity.
Los Angeles police were fielding other reports as well.
Claudia Peschiutta, a broadcast journalist who reports for radio station KNX, tweeted at 7:11 p.m.: #LAPD lieutenant says they've had 3 or 4 more reports of POSSIBLE #Dorner sightings w/in the hour, including one at a Wal-Mart.
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ORIGINAL REPORT: Authorities were sent to an area near the Northridge Fashion Center after reports of a man resembling Christopher Jordan Dorner being seen there, police said.
The report came in at 3:33 p.m. and the search began at Plummer Street and Corbin Avenue, according to Detective Gus Villanueva of the Los Angeles Police Department.
"The situation is ongoing, and we have resources out there checking out
the reports,'' Villanueva said.
Police have set up a command post at Nordhoff Street and Shirley Avenue, the Daily News reported. The Lowe's Home Improvement store at 19601 Nordhoff St., near Corbin Avenue, was evacuated during the investigation, according to a tweet by ABC7.
A $1 million reward has been offered for information leading to the conviction of Dorner, who is being sought for the shooting deaths of three people, as 50 Los Angeles police officers and their families are being watched and guarded against attack by the ex-cop who's online posting said he's on a murderous campaign of revenge.
The unprecedented reward kitty must still be approved by several agencies, including city councils and county boards of supervisors across several Southern California jurisdictions.
Los Angeles County supervisors Mike Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas agreed to make the request at the next Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Antonovich's spokesman told City News Service.
Donors to the reward fund included police officers associations in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Irvine, Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Staples Center's AEG contributed, as did the United Firefighters of Los Angeles, and the Association of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies.
Also contributing were the FBI, First Watch, and the city and county of Riverside, as well as six anonymous donors.
Meanwhile, police on Sunday revealed that Richard Crain, 34, was the Riverside police officer killed Thursday, apparently by Dorner. Riverside police Chief Sergio Diaz said Crain's name had been been withheld until Sunday because of fears that Dorner might harm Crain's surviving family, Diaz said.
Crain was a retired Marine. Details about survivors was not released.
Los Angeles Police Department chief Charlie Beck said earlier Sunday that search efforts were still focused on the snowy mountains of Big Bear, where Dorner apparently abandoned his pickup truck and set it afire Thursday.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the reward money is being put up by "business, unions, government, law enforcement and community groups."
Chief Beck called it "the largest award every offered locally.
"Some have asked why such a large reward," Beck said. "This is an act of domestic terrorism. This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. This is not about capturing a suspect, this is about preventing a future attack, maybe a murder."
LAPD resources were stretched today, as the department not only searched for Dorner but grappled with logistics of providing security for 50 LAPD officers' homes and families.
At a news conference in Los Angeles, the Riverside police chief said it was time to identify the slain officer publicly, with a funeral pending Wednesday.
"There are several news outlets that have had that information [the name] because they have figured it out on their own," Diaz told reporters. "We are very, very grateful to you that you have embargoed that. This individual has already shown and stated that the families of police officers are fair game."
Dorner, nursing a grudge about his dismissal from the Los Angeles police force, on Feb. 3 apparently killed the daughter of a LAPD policeman and her fiancee in Irvine. On Thursday, he apparently was involved in shootouts with Los Angeles police guarding an officer's home in Corona, where police were shot at but not hit.
Crain and his partner were ambushed by a gunman later that morning in Riverside. The partner was wounded, and his name is still being withheld.
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Patch's Richard Core contributed to this report.
