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- Idaho Firefighters Ambushed: What to Know</p>
<p>Miranda JeyaretnamJuly 1, 2025 at 12:22 AM</p>
<p>The suspect in the shooting of a group of Idaho firefighters who were responding to a wildfire near Coeur d'Alene has been identified as 20-year-old Wess Roley.</p>
<p>Two firefighters were killed and a third badly injured in the apparent ambush on Sunday afternoon. Firefighters had responded to reports of a brush fire at Canfield Mountain, north of Coeur d'Alene, at around 1:30 p.m., at which point someone started shooting at them. A shelter-in-place order was lifted just before 8 p.m. Sunday night, after authorities identified the suspect, who was found dead. The names of the victims have not yet been released.</p>
<p>Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris named Roley as the suspect on Monday, saying that he had previously had "minor" interactions with law enforcement in the area involving welfare checks and a trespassing incident in which he was asked to leave and complied. He did not have a criminal record, according to Norris.</p>
<p>Roley appeared to be living out of his vehicle, the sheriff said, adding that he attacked the firefighters after they asked him to move it. "We have not been able to find a manifesto," Norris said. He said a motive for the shooting had not been identified.</p>
<p>Roley's grandfather, Dale Roley, told the New York Times on Monday that the suspect was working for a tree company and had expressed interest in becoming a forest firefighter.</p>
<p>"I know he had been in contact to get a job with a fire department. He wanted to be part of a team that he sort of idolized," Dale Roley said in a separate interview with NBC News.</p>
<p>Norris said law enforcement did not know if there was a connection between Roley's desire to become a firefighter at one point and the shooting.</p>
<p>"We do believe that the suspect started the fire, and we do believe that it was an ambush and it was intentional," Norris said on Sunday. "These firefighters did not have a chance."</p>
<p>Here's what we know so far about the shooting.</p>
<p>Brush fire believed to be an ambush</p>
<p>Authorities believe that the shooter started the fire in order to lure in the firefighters. Gunshots were reported around half an hour after firefighters arrived at the scene.</p>
<p>"Everybody's shot up here," first responders said over a dispatch according to the . "Send law enforcement now."</p>
<p>Law enforcement locked down the hiking area and nearby neighborhoods—marking a more than 17,000 sq. ft. containment area. It was not clear if any civilians were stuck on the mountain or had been injured, Norris said at an afternoon news conference.</p>
<p>Around 300 officers from multiple agencies, including the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, Spokane Police, Coeur d'Alene Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, responded to the scene. Officers exchanged fire with the shooter in an hourslong standoff.</p>
<p>The fire—and the terrain—complicated the scene, with the fire smoke and the brush offering cover for the shooter. "We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak," Norris said. "We don't know how many suspects are up there, and we don't know how many casualties there are."</p>
<p>Law enforcement exchanged fire with the shooter in an hourslong standoff that ended in the suspect's death. Norris said at an evening news conference that authorities believe there to have been one shooter.</p>
<p>The shelter-in-place order has since been lifted.</p>
<p>Two firefighters killed and one injured</p>
<p>Three victims were transported to Kootenai Health, though two were dead on arrival, according to hospital spokesperson Kim Anderson.</p>
<p>Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, 42, was killed. Harwood served as a firefighter in the Kootenai County Fire and Rescue for 17 years and was a veteran combat engineer of the Army National Guard. He was married and had two children.</p>
<p>Battalion Chief John Morrison, 52, was also killed. He served 28 years with the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department.</p>
<p>"We talked about being better fathers, we talked about being better leaders, talked about being better firefighters," Gabe Eckert, president of the Coeur d'Alene Firefighter's union, said of his last memory with Morrison at Monday's press conference. "These guys were hard workers. They loved their families."</p>
<p>Coeur d'Alene Fire Department Fire Engineer David Tysdal, 47, was in critical condition. He underwent two successful surgeries and was "fighting for his life" but is in stable condition, Norris said. Tysdal has worked as an engineer with the department for 23 years.</p>
<p>Local law enforcement agencies have offered to accompany the fire department on future calls, Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Christopher Way said on Monday.</p>
<p>"I don't know that we're ever going to be able to guarantee people's peace of mind, at least for a while after an incident like this," Way said. "But we are taking every measure we can to ensure safety of our responders."</p>
<p>Suspect found dead</p>
<p>Police used cellphone data to trace the location of the shooter, identifying a cell signal at around 3:15 p.m. that had not moved for some time, Norris said at the evening conference. There, a tactical response team found a man lying dead with a weapon nearby, whom authorities believe was the shooter.</p>
<p>"There is no threat to the community at this time," Norris said. "Based on the trajectory and based on the type of weapons that this individual had that we could recover, we believe only the one shooter."</p>
<p>Because of the encroaching fire, authorities had to "scoop the body up," Norris said. The scene was "compromised" as a result, he said, but "we had to do what we had to do to preserve the body." The investigation continued Monday morning.</p>
<p>Norris said the shooter used a shotgun. Investigators believe there was one shooter who moved around to shoot from different positions, he added.</p>
<p>Investigators also found "some small projectiles, and we don't know if that was a fragmentation of one of the rifle slugs or another weapon," Norris said on Monday.</p>
<p>Norris said on Monday that the suspect appeared to have shot himself.</p>
<p>Roley had connections to California and Arizona and was living in Idaho "for the better part of 2024," Norris said.</p>
<p>"As far as when he got here, why he was here, why he chose this place," Norris said. "I don't know."</p>
<p>Roley set a fire using flint, according to Norris. After firefighters arrived on scene, he had "a discussion" with them "to do with his vehicle being parked where it was," he said.</p>
<p>A half hour after they arrived, they found themselves under gunfire. Investigators believe he started shooting them from a tree, Norris said.</p>
<p>Roley's stepfather, Tony Cuchiara, said in a statement Monday: "We do not understand why this happened or how this came about. Our hearts and spirits are broken for the lost and hurting, and for our own loss as well." Cuchiara said he and his family will cooperate with the investigation.</p>
<p>Fire continues burning</p>
<p>The fire, later named the Nettleton Gulch fire, was still burning 26 acres of land at 6 p.m. on Monday, according to the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL). No structures are at risk, the department said. Kootenai County Emergency Management cautioned residents to be prepared and ready in case it escalates. IDL also asked the public to stay clear of the Canfield Mountain area.</p>
<p>Multiple crews are on scene working to contain the fire, which is made challenging by the steep terrain with "an abundance of snags on site, as well as the possibility of rolling logs and falling rocks" and timber fuels, IDL said.</p>
<p>Firefighting efforts were delayed till around 7:30 p.m. because of the threat of gunfire. The fire has scorched around 20 acres of land on the mountain, but no structures were lost, the department said.</p>
<p>"It's very difficult terrain to get assets, ground assets up there," Norris said. Aerial support for water drops is assisting with putting out the fire, and IDL believes it will have a fire line—a barrier to prevent the fire from spreading—by Monday night, Norris said.</p>
<p>The area around Canfield Mountain has been designated a no-fly zone by the sheriff's office until further notice, including a prohibition on drones, the county's emergency management services said.</p>
<p>First responders target of violence</p>
<p>It remains unclear why firefighters were targeted, though this isn't the first time this year that first responders have been attacked.</p>
<p>Tulsa firefighter-medics were ambushed and shot at earlier this month while treating a victim in Oklahoma, Tulsa Fire Chief Michael Baker said on KOTV-News. In April, a firefighter-paramedic in Kansas City was stabbed to death in an ambulance. And in 2022, Seattle fire medic units reported being attacked on multiple occasions while responding to scenes or in an ambulance.</p>
<p>"This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters," Idaho Gov. Brad Little said on X after Sunday's shooting."The job's not over," Jason Pack, a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, told CNN. "Somebody's still got to be around to fight the fires—and that's the reality of every day, what the men and women who put their lives on the line for folks in America deal with. They have huge personal loss sometimes but just keep showing up, going to work, and doing their job, and what they're trained to do."</p>
<p>Contact us at [email protected].</p>
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