Suspect in Idaho firefighter killings identified as 20-year-old
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Alexandra Duggan, The Spokesman-Review
COEUR D’ALENE (Spokesman-Review) — The suspect in the brazen shooting on a mountain that killed two Idaho firefighters and injured another is 20-year-old Wess Roley, according a Spokesman-Review law enforcement source that agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity.
The man has ties to Bonner County, Idaho, the source said. Officials believe he has lived in his truck at some point in the past two years, but are still working to gain more information.
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National media networks have also independently confirmed the alleged shooter’s identity Monday.
Roley is believed to have shot and killed two firefighters from the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue on Sunday while they responded to a brush fire on Canfield Mountain, east of Coeur d’Alene. Crews responded around 1:21 p.m. and reported they were being shot at by 2 p.m.
Another firefighter from the department was “fighting for their life,” in the hospital, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris said Sunday.
Officials believe the fire was intentionally started to lure the firefighters in an “ambush-style attack,” Northern Lakes Fire Chief Pat Riley told The Spokesman-Review.
“These firefighters didn’t have a chance,” Norris told reporters Sunday night.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
Law enforcement that descended on the mountain “exchanged gunfire” with the suspect, Norris said. They were later able to home in on a cell phone that had been in one place on the mountain since 3:16 p.m., Norris said. When they traced the phone, they found their suspect dead with a firearm under his body. Norris said it’s unclear whether he died by suicide.
The firefighters have not been identified.