Report: Killing was just
County attorney releases results of probe into SWAT shooting
Flathead County sheriff's deputy Russ Papke shot and killed Rian Ross after the domestic-violence suspect brought a 12-gauge shotgun to his shoulder and leveled it at Papke in his position in front of other SWAT team members March 26.
That is among details of the shooting on Mountain Meadow Road in the Kalispell police investigation report, which was released Thursday by the Flathead County Attorney's Office.
It came a day after a coroner's inquest was scheduled May 11 in the Flathead County Justice Center.
Deputy County attorneys Dan Guzynski and Tammi Fisher are preparing for that inquest, during which they will call witnesses and then ask a jury of six people to decide whether Papke's action was justified or criminal.
They will not, however, be asked to decide on whether the overall SWAT action was justified.
The report showed that Ross, 46, did not fire his shotgun after SWAT deputies entered his house about 12:45 p.m. March 26, using a key supplied by Ross' wife.
According to the report:
The deputies were there to serve an arrest warrant for an violent assault on his wife the night before, in which he threatened to shoot her. She was preparing to divorce him, according to the report, and had told him a day or two earlier of her plans to move out.
Deputies responded that night, but backed off to avoid a dangerous confrontation while Ross was intoxicated and had a gun in his hand.
Working on information that he would be asleep in the house, the SWAT team members positioned themselves at the property and then three calls were placed to Ross from a neighbor's home. He didn't answer, so deputies let themselves in the front door and began checking rooms.
Within a few seconds, Ross appeared around a corner from a bedroom carrying a gun. He moved to the kitchen - opposite the front door - and then ran back to the bedroom.
Papke and at least one other deputy went to the kitchen, then faced Ross, who had come back to the door of the bedroom and pointed the shotgun at Papke.
Ross refused repeated orders to drop his gun, so Papke fired three shots from his .223-caliber AR-15 rifle. The first, which hit him in the chest, proved fatal. Two others went past Ross into a windowpane and window frame.
Other SWAT members thought they had heard Ross fire, but Papke knew he had not fired. A check of Ross' gun afterward, which was fully loaded, proved that to be the case. Investigators, however, did find Ross had close access to more ammunition in the bedroom.
They also found nine marijuana plants growing in a portable greenhouse in the bedroom closet, and 29 more plants under lights and a ventilator fan upstairs. The plants had no immediate bearing on the SWAT action, and the county attorney's office reportedly does not intend to pursue charges related to them against Ross' wife.
Both the police investigation and a sheriff's investigation into the midday shooting found that Papke, when presented with circumstances inside Ross' home that day, had no other choice.
"Deputy Papke was forced to fire his duty weapon," Kalispell detective Sgt. Scott Warnell, the lead investigator, wrote in his report, "only after being confronted by an armed male with a shotgun, in defense of his life and the lives of his fellow team members."
The sheriff's five-member shooting review board, mandated when a deputy fires a weapon in the line of duty, "unanimously agreed that Papke fired his weapon as a result of the action taken by Ross," according to the internal investigation report.
Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan agreed that the deputy followed department policy on use of deadly force.
The policy follows Montana Code, which says a law officer "is justified in the use of force likely to cause death or serious bodily harm only if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily harm to himself or another …"
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com