Sheriff John McMahon hopes no law enforcement agency ever faces the kind of manhunt he coordinated from San Bernardino County near Los Angeles last February.

There, former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner killed four people, including three police officers, and wounded three other officers. His five-day spree ended when he killed himself during a standoff with police.

The search for Dorner, which involved complex interactions among several agencies, can serve as a learning opportunity for agencies throughout the country, McMahon said Tuesday in Minneapolis. He spoke to more than 120 local officers at the invitation of Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, in partnership with Target.

The California officers "faced many of the same issues we faced in the [2007] 35W bridge collapse," Stanek said. "There were communication and self-deployment [by officers] problems, and adverse weather conditions ... . Sheriff McMahon was candid on what worked well and what could be done better."

In an interview after his presentation, McMahon talked about a review of the manhunt by the Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C., research group. Although police largely performed admirably, poor communication, competing interests and a chaotic, undisciplined response to Dorner's final stand were identified as problems.

McMahon also said he wished he would have dealt better with the swarm of media attention. He would advise reporters about coming news briefings, but at the time didn't have Twitter or Facebook set up in a way to expedite those communications.

Handling the officers involved also was difficult, he said. Los Angeles police officers believed they had a high stake in the manhunt because their peers had been killed and wounded. And McMahon's office's entire 65-member SWAT team also wanted in, and it was difficult to get them to go home and rest, he said.

"You learn to deal with crisis situations as you move up the ranks, but this was obviously the most intense experience in my 29-year career," he said.

Participants in the training session asked McMahon questions ranging from how to prepare for a high-profile police officer's funeral to how to ensure that officers who need psychological help receive it.

"Whatever they learned today may give them a little of bit of insight to help them handle future incidents," he said.

In fact, just hours after the session, law enforcement officers in Minnetonka dealt with a military veteran with health issues who said he wasn't coming out of his house, Stanek said.

That potentially dangerous situation ended without injury.

David Chanen • 612-673-4465