LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fugitive former policeman Christopher Dorner is believed to have broke into a home, tied up a couple and stole their pickup truck in the San Bernardino mountains northeast of Los Angeles, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said in an advisory.

Dorner, accused of targeting law enforcement officers and their families in three revenge-driven killings, was apparently fired on by a state fish and game ranger as he fled in the stolen vehicle, the sheriff's department said.

Local television news outlets aired the sounds of gunfire and shouting in a live broadcast from the Big Bear Lake ski resort area.

(Reporting and writing By Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)