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Dorner manhunt: LAPD officers who shot at 2 women violated department's use-of-force policy (Update)

FILE - This Feb. 7, 2013 file photo law enforcement officers look over the scene of an officer involved shooting in Torrance, Calif. An attorney says two women won't take a truck they were offered to replace one shot up by Los Angeles police during the hunt for rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner. Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother were delivering newspapers in Torrance last month when police mistook their truck for Dorner's and riddled it with bullets. Carranza was hit by broken glass and her mother, Emma Hernandez, was shot twice in the back. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson,File)
FILE - This Feb. 7, 2013 file photo law enforcement officers look over the scene of an officer involved shooting in Torrance, Calif. An attorney says two women won't take a truck they were offered to replace one shot up by Los Angeles police during the hunt for rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner. Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother were delivering newspapers in Torrance last month when police mistook their truck for Dorner's and riddled it with bullets. Carranza was hit by broken glass and her mother, Emma Hernandez, was shot twice in the back. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson,File)
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Chris Carlson/AP
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Dorner manhunt: LAPD officers who shot at 2 women violated department's use-of-force policy (Update)

Update 5:35 p.m.: An internal LAPD investigation found eight officers violated policy last year when they shot at and hurt two women in Torrance during the Christopher Dorner manhunt. The cops mistook the women's truck for Dorner's.

The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday adopted the recommendations and findings of the report.

Now it's up to L.A. police Chief Charlie Beck to decide how the officers will be disciplined. And the public may never know.

"State law prevents me from describing particular disciplines as is applied to each officer," Beck said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. "I will say that discipline could be anywhere from extensive retraining up to termination."

The two women, Margie Carranza and her mother Emma Hernandez, were delivering newspapers when they were fired upon. 

Previously: Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck and the L.A. Police Commission have found eight officers violated department policy when they fired at two women delivering newspapers in Torrance last year during the hunt for ex-LAPD cop Christopher Dorner. Beck will now decide the discipline the officers will receive.

"In this incident the Police Commission unanimously adopted the recommendations of the Chief of Police for all officers who discharged their service weapons," police commissioner Steve Soboroff said in a written statement.

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Two women were delivering newspapers early Feb. 7, 2013. At about 5:15 a.m., eight LAPD officers fired more than 100 rounds at their blue Toyota Tacoma truck. Two bullets struck Emma Hernandez, 71. The other woman, Margie Carranza, 47, was injured by broken glass.

The officers were protecting an LAPD official’s home who had been threatened by Dorner. Law enforcement across Southern California had been on the lookout for a gray Nissan Titan that was reportedly driven by Dorner. A few hours before the LAPD shooting, Dorner fired on two Riverside police officers, killing one of them.

Christopher Dorner manhunt 1st anniversary: Where are the survivors now?

"Ultimately the officers believed by the erratic manner the vehicle was driving that it was occupied by Dorner," according to a news release from the L.A. Police Commission. "These observations led the officers to discharge their weapons at the vehicle to stop the threat."

Authorities say Dorner killed four people – including the Riverside cop and a San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department detective – before he died in a standoff with police in a burning cabin in Big Bear. The ex-cop wrote a long letter, or manifesto, in which he threatened to harm numerous law enforcement officials and their families as revenge for what he called being unjustly fired from the LAPD.

After the shooting, the eight LAPD officers involved were sent home until they could be seen by the department’s psychologist, said LAPD spokesperson Commander Andrew Smith. It is a standard protocol for officers who fire their weapon on duty.

“All officers have been assigned to non-field duties since the incident,” Smith said.

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The city of the Los Angeles paid the two women $40,000 to replace the shot up truck. They eventually settled a lawsuit with the women for $4.2 million.

An attorney for the women said the two have did not return to their newspaper delivery jobs because it was too stressful for them. They now work cleaning houses.

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