Shooting suspect had notes to relatives in his backpack

By Jessica Martinez|January 24, 2015

In the backpack left at the scene after Thursday’s on-campus officer-involved shooting in Lot F were pieces of writing from the 18-year-old suspect to relatives, sheriff homicide Lt. Dave Dolson said.

Dolson said investigators deemed the other contents of Peyton Dingman’s backpack to be not of significant value to the investigation.

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18-year-old Peyton Dingman has been identified as the suspect in Thursdays on-campus officer-involved shooting. Dingman left a suicide note at home and pointed an Airsoft pellet gun wrapped in electrical tape at officers before the El Camino Police Department officers shot at him. Dingman remains in critical condition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Photo from his Facebook page.
Sheriff's Department identifies shooting suspect
EC Police Chief Michael Trevis speaks at yesterdays press conference about the on-campus officer-involved shooting. Since then, little information has been released about the suspect or incident. Photo credit: John Fordiani
Minimal information being given regarding yesterday's campus shooting

Dolson said Dingman, who attended El Camino last summer, wandered around the parking lot he was shot near for as much as two hours before he made a false hostage 9-1-1 call just after 11 a.m. Thursday. Dolson said the incident lasted only a few minutes.

“He was on the phone with the dispatcher at El Camino when the police encountered him,” Dolson said. “He gave the dispatcher a location and that’s where he was.”

The Airsoft pellet gun Dingman pointed at officers has been collected as evidence, Dolson said. It was “completely” covered in black electrical tape and had the same size and shape of a semi-automatic handgun, Dolson added.

One of the two El Camino Police Department officers who responded to the shooting had a .40 caliber Glock. The other officer had an AR-15, Dolson said.

Dolson declined to divulge the contents of the suicide note Dingman left at his home in Torrance where he lived with his grandmother.

It’s unknown if drugs or alcohol were in Dingman’s system at the time of the shooting, Dolson said.

Dolson said no charges have yet been filed against Dingman. Dingman remains at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and is expected to survive.

Read our first story about Thursday’s shooting, updated throughout Thursday afternoon, our story about the difficulty of getting information about the shooting and our story about the Sheriff’s Department releasing the name of the suspect.

Editor’s note: The headline of this story has been changed for clarity.