Deputy cleared in shooting

It took a jury of four women and two men less than 10 minutes Friday to decide that Flathead County Sheriff's Deputy Russ Papke was justified in shooting Rian Ross inside Ross' Mountain Meadow Road home.

Ross, 46, was shot and killed during a March 26 SWAT team action initiated to serve a high-risk arrest warrant on Ross, a domestic violence suspect.

A coroner's inquest headed by Lincoln County Coroner Steve Schnackenberg convened at 9:30 a.m. By 11:45 a.m., jurors had reached their decision and court was adjourned.

Their unanimous decision means criminal charges will not be filed against Papke, a 21-year law enforcement veteran with 2 1/2 years in the Flathead County Sheriff's Office.

Deputy Flathead County attorneys Tammi Fisher and Dan Guzynski questioned six witnesses - four from the Sheriff's Office and two from Kalispell Police Department.

Police officer Michelle O'Neil explained how measurements were taken at the scene and introduced a three-dimensional virtual walk-through computer image of Ross' home.

Papke was next.

He laid out events of the SWAT action that day, including the moment that he looked down the barrel of a 12-gauge shotgun pointed directly at his head from no more than two feet away.

To protect himself and his fellow team members, Papke said, he had no choice but to shoot.

This was the first time in more than 80 SWAT calls in his career that he had to fire his weapon, Papke told Fisher.

He was on regular shift duty on March 26 when Sheriff Mike Meehan asked if he would be the point member on the team for a SWAT operation. Their goal was to arrest Ross for an assault the previous night.

The previous night, the Sheriff's Office had gotten a 911 call from Ross' wife, Heidi, saying Rian Ross had threatened to kill her. He had been drinking, she said, and severely beat her before she could escape to a neighbor's house. She said he had several guns in the house.

"She said he was an aficionado of firearms who was not afraid to use them," Undersheriff Pete Wingert testified Friday, "and often used them in their front yard."

Deputies went to the house that night but backed off, hoping to avoid a confrontation while he was intoxicated and had a gun in his hand.

The team returned to the remote home in the middle of the day March 26. Heidi Ross had said his habit when drinking was to drink through the night, then sleep through the day.

Papke said he understood the dangers he faced.

"Not every situation in which you serve an arrest warrant is a high-risk situation, is it?" Fisher asked the deputy.

No, he answered.

"In fact, most are not, is that right?" she continued. Again, he agreed with her premise.

At the home, SWAT Team Commander Dave Leib made the decision on how to carry out the action and the team members "got a visual" on the house where they were to set up, Papke said.

Detective Commander Jeanne Landis made three phone calls, hoping to convince Ross to step outside the house where they could make the arrest.

"He wouldn't answer, so we had to go in," Papke said.

With team member Brad Stahlberg training a rifle on the bedroom window next to the front door and Papke standing near that window, team member Jordan White crawled beneath the window and used a key from Heidi Ross to unlock the front door. She also had provided a house layout and said her husband would be sleeping in that bedroom.

Papke went in first and moved to the right wall of the sunken living room, then White, who swept to the left, then Sam Cox who followed directly behind Papke, and finally Kip Tkachyk. Papke said they entered quietly in hopes that he still would be asleep and they could arrest him without incident.

He was awake.

And he was standing with a 12-gauge shotgun in the door of the bedroom where it opened onto the hallway at the far end of the living room wall.

At the end of that wall, Papke leaned around the corner and saw the shotgun leveled at his head from 1 1/2 to 2 feet away.

"Basically I looked right down the barrel of a shotgun," Papke said.

He ducked back behind the corner, but feared Ross would begin shooting through the wall.

"I thought if he did, he couldn't miss because, between myself and the others with me, we basically were all across the room," Papke said.

He yelled to the others that Ross had a shotgun, and ordered Ross, "Sheriff's office, drop the gun."

He repeated that twice, Cox testified later.

Ross did not drop the gun. Papke said he needed more-solid cover, so ran the short distance across the hallway opening and took cover behind the refrigerator in the kitchen. From there he saw Ross had raised the gun back to the ready position, aimed straight at Papke.

Fisher questioned whether Papke watched Ross' eyes or the gun barrel to gauge the threat level.

"They can't shoot you with their eyes," Papke said. "The gun is your danger."

To end the threat, Papke said he started shooting. By the third shot, Ross was on the floor. Two bullets hit the window behind Ross but a third bullet, Kalispell Police Detective Sgt. Scott Warnell later testified, hit Ross in the heart and lung and lodged beneath his armpit.

"Why didn't you shoot (Ross) the first time he raised the gun to your head?" Fisher asked.

"That was my one tactical mistake," Papke said. He said he had a "mental picture" of a man sleeping on a bed and was not expecting to look into the barrel of a gun.

"I'm glad now that I made that mistake," he said.

"Because it gave you a chance to give a verbal command first?" Fisher asked.

"Yes," he answered, conceding that Ross had left him with no options but to shoot.

Cox, who followed Papke into the living room, testified that when Papke moved to the kitchen, Cox followed along the living room wall and came close to Ross' gun barrel as it was pointed into the kitchen.

"Seven or eight inches in front of me was the barrel of a shotgun across the front of my face," Cox said. A few seconds later, from his position behind Papke in the kitchen, he saw the barrel pointed directly at Papke.

White, the county's search and rescue coordinator, said he had prepared to use his Taser but, when he heard the shot, he went into the bedroom and found Ross on his knees and forehead with his arms folded beneath his chest.

He could see a round chambered in the shotgun under Ross, so took the gun away and handed it to Cox.

Warnell took charge of the investigation when he arrived later. Warnell said they found prescription drugs, marijuana plants and ammunition at the home.

The next day, Warnell took the body to Missoula for a forensic autopsy at the State Crime Lab. He said Ross' blood alcohol level was .30, nearly four times what is considered to be legally intoxicated. He also had some marijuana in his system, Warnell said.

Wingert headed the sheriff's office internal shooting review board, which found Papke was justified in shooting Ross.

Wingert praised Papke's professional performance and personal character, saying he is "a top-notch officer, highly trained, highly skilled … We are very fortunate to have him" as a part of the sheriff's team.

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