Suspect in Idaho firefighter ambush identified as Wess Roley

The suspect's grandfather said that he wanted to be a firefighter and that "something must have snapped" for him to have committed such an attack.


June 30, 2025, 2:17 PM EDT / Updated June 30, 2025, 4:11 PM EDT
By Erik Ortiz, Andrew Blankstein, Nollaig O'Connor and Minyvonne Burke

The suspect believed to have fatally shot two firefighters and wounded a third on Sunday while crews responded to a raging brush fire in northwest Idaho was identified on Monday as a 20-year-old man whose family says dreamed of one day becoming a firefighter himself.

Wess Val Roley is suspected of intentionally setting the fire to "ambush" firefighters, according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. His body was found with a gun in the area of the blaze in Canfield Mountain near Coeur D'Alene, authorities said, almost six hours after the shooting began.

The sources who spoke with NBC News did not give additional details, including whether the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or was fatally shot by authorities.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suspect-idaho-firefighter-ambush-identified-wess-roley-rcna215977


America's stability.