I don’t see the point in burning the truck. It is not as if they would not be able to figure out it was his.
Maybe he wanted them to find it but I bet he wasn’t that smart.
I read his manifesto. It is written by a well educated person. Insane perhaps; clearly unreasonable in some places, but not stupid. On top of that we know that he spent some time with the Navy and became an officer, a lieutenant.
No person, not even the stupidest gangbanger, will head up a mountain in winter and then signal everyone that he is there by setting fire. The police must believe that he knows what he is doing. Probably he does. The police should be happy that he hasn't mined the area around the truck; probably he has no access to military explosives.
He can't do everything right, but I'm sure he had lots of time to build plans of revenge. I suspect those plans were his major thought for several years now. Even if only 10% of his bravado speech in that manifesto is true, he will be a serious opponent. He has only one problem, IMO: his physical characteristics (namely, size and weight) are quite distinctive.
I'd guess that the toasted truck is a diversion & he's laughing his butt off somewhere down the hill.
Maybe he wanted them to find it but I bet he wasnt that smart.
Burning the truck destroyed prints and scents, so if the vehicle was driven up there by an accomplice... well, now they can't tell, nor can they use scent dogs to track the direction of the occupant.
And I would think it's obvious he wanted the vehicle found, because the LEO just burned through serious resources and taxpayer funds in a totally useless search.
They look like fools and the entire narrative is turning against the LAPD since the stupidly shot up civilians in two separate incidents.
The taxpayers are not happy with the LAPD. If this guy reappears and kills a few more cops and then disappears again, the LAPD is going to have serious issues and if there are anymore civilian shootings or even excessive use of force incidents in unrelated cases, there will be a public backlash.
What can one man with a gun do against an entire police force? Now everyone knows and it's even better than a Hollywood action flick.