The man who fatally shot two firefighters and wounded another in northern Idaho has been identified as Wess Roley, authorities said on Monday.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris, offering new details about the Sunday confrontation at Canfield Mountain, said Roley, who allegedly started the wildfire, shot the first responders after they asked him to move his vehicle.
“We do believe that the suspect started the fire, and we do believe that it was an ambush and it was intentional,” Norris said in a press conference on Sunday.
Who is Wess Roley?
Wess Roley, 20, lived out of his vehicle, was discovered dead from the scene as the blaze began to spread across the mountain. Sheriff Bob Norris later said he died by suicide.
Roley had set a fire using flint, and the firefighters who rushed to the scene instead found themselves under fire. They took cover behind fire trucks, but two died and a third was wounded during a barrage of gunfire over several hours.
According to Norris, Roley had no known criminal record. Local police had five recent minor and non-violent interactions with Roley, whereby they asked him to move his vehicle from where he was parked.
The 20-year-old had once expressed his desire to become a firefighter himself, the sheriff said. However, Kootenai County Fire Chief Chris Way said Monday that they had not received any job application from him, nor did he ever contact the department.
Roley, who was based out of California, had been living for the past year in Coeur d’Alene, about 260 miles (420 km) east of Seattle, where the Idaho wildfire ambush and subsequent shooting happened.
As per a report by The Associated Press, Wess Roley lived with TJ Franks Jr for around six months in Sandpoint, Idaho, when he was working for a tree service.
According to the report quoting Franks, Roley did display some odd behaviours while living with him, including throwing gang signs at cameras in the apartment. “I didn’t know what to really think about it,” Franks was quoted as saying by AP. “I just called the cops and had them talk to him.”
Franks said Roley “started acting a little weird” and at one point shaved his long hair off completely.
“We just kind of noticed him starting to decline or kind of go downhill,” he said.