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Son killed two firefighters, self
Editor’s note: This story is reprinted from the Tuesday, July 1 Spokesman Review. It has been shortened for space.
The victims and suspect in the brazen Sunday shooting deaths of two Idaho firefighters have been identified as a pair of battalion chiefs and a 20-year-old whose motivation remains a mystery to investigators.
The victims were Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, 42, of Kootenai County Fire and Rescue and Coeur d’Alene Fire Department Battalion Chief John Morrison, 52, officials said at a news conference Monday.
Morrison had been with Coeur d’Alene Fire since 1996, while Harwood had been with Kootenai County 17 years, officials said.
“These men were dedicated firefighters,” a fire official said at the news conference.
The ambush also critically injured 47-year-old Coeur d’Alene Fire Department engineer David Tysdal, who had undergone two surgeries as of noon Monday, officials said.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris identified the suspect Monday as 20-year-old Wess Roley.
Reached outside his home north of Priest River on Monday afternoon, Roley’s father, Jason Roley, called the killings “a tragedy.”
“I feel really sorry for the families of the firefighters,” he said. “It’s just horrible. I can’t imagine he would ever do anything what they’re saying happened.”
Investigators have yet to find a motive for the killings — the younger Roley did not leave a manifesto after he died by suicide on Canfield Mountain following the shootout, Norris told reporters at a news conference Monday. An Instagram photo of Wess Roley clad in camouflage gear and face paint with Bjork’s “Hunter” playing over the post was then distributed by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.
“These social media posts are what we call opensource information,” Norris said. “This is all an effort to find out intent.”
Jason Roley said he last heard from his son about a month ago, when all was well. He was working for a tree company in Coeur d’Alene.
“What’s being said right now, it just seems insane to me. He’s not like that,” Jason Roley said.
The secluded Roley residence was adorned with an American flag next to one that partially read “Veteran.”
Jason Roley said he wasn’t aware his son had any firearms.
“He’s never killed anything,” he said, ending the interview by saying he and his wife were headed to church.
There is evidence Wess Roley wanted to be a firefighter at one point, Norris said, but investigators have not come across any signs of interactions with local firefighters of note and don’t know whether it had anything to do with the attack.
The shooting suspect also had no criminal history and no survivalist training, but grew up in a family of arborists who climbed trees, living in California, Arizona and Idaho.
How it happened
Law enforcement believe Roley started the now-26acre fire with a flint starter on Canfield Mountain to lure firefighters in an “ambush-style attack.” Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue crews arrived at 1:21 p.m. to the report of the blaze and found Roley. The firefighters, now identified as Harwood and Morrison, had a “discussion” with him, asking Roley to move his truck.
At 2 p.m., fire crews reported they were being shot. It’s believed responders were being targeted from a tree in which Roley had perched, Norris said, because law enforcement was also “engaging in gunfire” in the same direction.
“These firefighters didn’t have a chance,” Norris told reporters Sunday night.
Investigators eventually discovered a phone signal on the mountain that had been there since around 3:16 p.m. When they traced the phone, they found Roley dead with a shotgun underneath him. Law enforcement had to act quickly to remove his body because the wildfire was encroaching at high speeds, Norris has said. It took about an hour and a half to recover him from the mountain.
Roley’s truck was still in the middle of an active crime scene partly torched from the wildfire Monday. Investigators haven’t recorded an inventory of his truck that’s still lying in an embankment after deputies pushed it over a cliff so the suspect couldn’t circle back around during the shootout and drive away, Norris said. Deputies also flattened the tires of multiple fire trucks on scene so the suspect couldn’t hijack them.
Roley, who had been in the area “for the better part of 2024,” was also known to police, but not for anything criminal — the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office had three “interactions” with Roley, and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department reported two. Each interaction was minimal, like for trespassing or a welfare check, and Roley was cooperative, Norris said.
Roley’s Instagram username is no longer available online. Norris said the account was wiped, but not by law enforcement.
A father’s disbelief
After offering condolences to the families of the fallen firefighters, Jason Roley said he’d hoped authorities misidentified his son as the shooter.
“There’s got to be more to the story,” Jason Roley said.
The elder Roley lives with his wife on wooded acreage along a creek, accessed only by an unmarked dirt road off state Highway 57. The property is situated in a jungle of cedar, red fir, grand fir and aspens. The meandering road is dotted with an occasional private driveway, each boarded by a gate heavy with warnings and “No Trespassing” signs, keeping out visitors and keeping in a collection of horses and goats.
One neighbor said the county owns the road, but the neighbors maintain it. During peak tourist season, residents see maybe one car there each week that doesn’t belong to a property owner, the neighbor said.
Jason Roley gave no indication that Wess Roley ever lived there. Online records indicate he ran track in high school in Arizona in 2024. Asked whether his son recently graduated, Jason Roley said no.
“He got his GED. I actually flew him out here to go into the army, but I don’t know what happened.”
