KCBS Reporter's Brush With Dorner's Mother

Michele Gile, veteran reporter at KCBS-KCAL, allegedly had a fairly random encounter with Nancy Dorner, mother of Christopher Dorner, at a Mexican restaurant yesterday. Gile was in La Palma, CA to interview Nancy and stopped into La Capilla Mexican Restaurant at around 3:30 p.m., where the standoff at Big Bear was of course playing on the TV.

Gile got to speaking with two women at the bar, who were drinking wine and eating chips and salsa as images of the shootout and standoff rolled overhead.

Reports LosAngeles.CBSLocal.com:

Gile, not knowing she was speaking to the suspect’s mom, said she told the two women that Dorner’s mother lived nearby.She also asked the pair if they knew the 33-year-old fugitive.

The women shook their heads “no.”

When Gile and her news crew left the restaurant, the bartender said Dorner’s mother asked him a lot of questions.

“Right after you left, she got nervous. She started asking me questions, like if I knew (Dorner)…what I know about him…stuff like that. She was watching the TV, but she wasn’t really concerned about it. She was busy talking to her friend, like it was just an everyday thing,” said Joseph Munoz.

Employees said the ladies spent about 30 minutes at the bar.

Gile said she later went to Dorner’s home in La Palma. About 10 minutes after she arrived there, she saw the woman from the restaurant, who neighbors identified as Dorner’s mother, pull into the driveway and go in the house.

The hunt for Dorner, wanted for multiple murders, held the region in thrall until his apparent death in Big Bear yesterday.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.