Man shot and killed in exchange with deputies near Bigelow Gulch Road last week identified

A man who was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire with Spokane County sheriff’s deputies last week has been identified as 43-year-old Michael Lee Dingman.

The deputies who fired their weapons were Kyle Leavenworth and Ashley Hood, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. They are on administrative leave while the shooting is being investigated.

Dingman died from multiple gunshot wounds, and his cause of death is listed as homicide by the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Spokane Valley Police Chief and Undersheriff Dave Ellis said deputies spotted an older orange truck with stolen plates that did not match the truck just before 3 a.m. Friday. When they approached the truck, the driver fled.

The truck was found crashed with a female passenger inside, but the driver, Dingman, was gone, Ellis said. Deputies learned Dingman had multiple active arrest warrants, including unlawful possession of a firearm and burglary, according to a news release from the Spokane Police Department, which is leading the investigation into the incident.

Deputies searched for him, later finding him hiding outside a house on Bigelow Gulch Road, where investigators say Dingman stole weapons.

Dingman and deputies exchanged gunfire, leaving Dingman dead, Ellis said. No deputies were hit.

Dingman was a sex offender who had multiple criminal convictions in Spokane dating back to 2001. He was charged with burglary in March and unlawful possession of a firearm in June. There was an active warrant for his arrest on those cases at the time of his death, according to court records.

Hood was hired at the sheriff’s office in October. She was a deputy at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in California for three years before coming to Spokane.

She was working with her field training officer, Leavenworth, who supervised her during her probationary period.

Leavenworth joined the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office in 2016. He has since become a field training officer, reality based training instructor and firearms instructor for the sheriff’s office.