Inquiry nearing an end

A police investigation should wrap up today into the shooting death of Rian Ross.

Ross, 46, was killed Monday by the Flathead County sheriff's SWAT team, Sheriff Mike Meehan said, when he pointed a gun at deputies trying to arrest him for aggravated assault. The shooting occurred inside Ross' Mountain Meadow Road home west of Kalispell.

Kalispell police Chief Roger Nasset said Thursday that his department likely will have its investigation report ready to hand over to the Flathead County Attorney's Office by the end of today. That office's report should come next week, Nasset said.

Detective Sgt. Scott Warnell is leading the Kalispell police investigation.

Although the county attorney will decide whether charges are warranted in the shooting, Nasset said his officers have turned up nothing out of line.

The police investigation will not be considered closed, however, until evidence returns from the State Crime Lab in Missoula, where Ross' body was taken for an autopsy Tuesday.

The State Crime Lab also is conducting toxicology tests to determine what was in Ross' blood system at the time of death. Results are expected in about four to six weeks.

Eight investigators with the Police Department's major case unit collected evidence and four detectives processed the evidence this week, beginning with the 1:45 p.m. shooting Monday.

Any time a law-enforcement action results in a death, an outside agency is asked to investigate the possibility of wrongful action.

The Sheriff's Office investigated a Kalispell police shooting that resulted in the death of Trevor New on Thanksgiving Day 2006.

After the 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.