Investigation of SWAT shooting begins

Flathead County man killed Monday after threatening deputies, sheriff says

Rian Ross, 46, has been identified as the man killed in a SWAT team action Monday afternoon on Mountain Meadow Road.

Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said Tuesday morning that Ross pointed a gun at deputies after they used a key to enter his home to serve a "high-risk" arrest warrant.

The SWAT team fired in self-defense, he said.

Meehan said Ross was hit with one shot. Team members later found that his gun was loaded.

The Kalispell Police Department major crimes unit is investigating the incident. It is standard procedure for an outside department to conduct an investigation when a law-enforcement action results in a death.

Until that investigation is finished, Meehan said, he will not discuss Monday's incident in detail.

The shooting happened about 1:45 p.m. at the remote home Ross shared with his 45-year-old wife at 1535 Mountain Meadow Road. It sits on heavily wooded land four miles up the road from its junction with Rhodes Draw to the southeast.

On Sunday, sheriff's deputies were called to the home just before 7 p.m.

Meehan said Ross had beaten his wife, then threatened her with a 12-gauge shotgun that evening. She escaped to a neighbor's home about 200 yards away and phoned for help.

When deputies arrived Sunday, they tried to talk with Ross. He would not come face-to-face with them, but deputies did make phone contact. Ross was uncooperative and verbally abusive, Meehan said. Because the woman was safe, they backed off for the night.

Meehan said both the husband and wife had been drinking Sunday.

Deputies talked with Ross' wife, who explained the home's layout and gave them a key. On Monday morning, the Sheriff's Office worked out a plan to approach the home and deployed the SWAT team.

Working on the assumption that Ross would be in the house, they used the key and entered the home. When met with deadly force, Meehan said, a deputy fired and killed Ross.

The deputy who fired the shot is on administrative leave, Meehan said.

Ross' body was sent to the State Crime Lab in Missoula for an autopsy Tuesday. Results are expected in two or three days. Results from toxicology tests will take several weeks.

Meehan said Ross has a history of family violence.

In 2004, he was arrested for his first offense of misdemeanor partner or family member assault. Meehan characterized Ross' relationship with his wife as abusive.

After the Kalispell police investigation, Sheriff's Office policy calls for an internal shooting review board to convene within 20 days.

The state also mandates a coroner's inquest, to be conducted by a county coroner who is not a law-enforcement official. Meehan said Lincoln County Coroner Steve Schnackenberg has been asked to conduct the inquest into Ross' death.

Schnackenberg also conducted inquests into the deaths of Trevor New, killed after he pointed a gun at Kalispell police on Thanksgiving Day 2006, and Robert Frett, who died while in the Flathead County jail in October 2006 from a lethal combination of alcohol and drugs he had taken earlier.

The last shooting by a Flathead County sheriff's officer was in January 2005. Deputies had been called to a Marion home where Terrance Sidener had threatened to kill his wife and anyone who approached his house.

He initially complied with an order to lay down his gun as he approached deputies, who had taken cover behind their vehicles in the driveway, then picked the weapon back up and pointed it at them. A deputy shot and killed Sidener.

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com