Suspect who ambushed Idaho firefighters found dead after police shootout
The sniper was found dead following a shootout with police, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said. The wounded firefighter was in stable condition late Sunday, Norris said.
The discovery of the shooter's body on Canfield Mountain, a popular hiking destination outside the city of Coeur d'Alene, culminated six hours of frenzied activity that saw around 300 local, state and federal officers flock to the area. It began with the suspect, who has not yet been identified by police, lighting an early afternoon fire and then shooting the first responders who came to put it out.
'This was a total ambush," Norris said at a briefing late Sunday. "These firefighters did not have a chance."
One of the slain firefighters worked at Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, and the other worked for the Coeur D'Alene Fire Department. The wounded firefighter also works for the Coeur D'Alene department.
Authorities found the shooter's body and a nearby firearm using cell phone location data, Norris said. It's unclear how the suspect died but Norris said law enforcement responding to the shooting had exchanged gunfire with him.
Gov. Brad Little said he and wife Terese were "heartbroken."
"Multiple heroic firefighters were attacked today while responding to a fire in North Idaho," Little said in a social media post. "This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters. I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more."
Where is Coeur d'Alene?
The attack on the firefighters happened outside Coeur d'Alene, a small city in northwest Idaho about 250 miles east of Seattle.
U.S. census data estimates say it has a population of over 57,000.
It is located in Kootenai County, an area north of the Coeur d'Alene Native American Reservation. Kootenai borders Washington state and has a population of over 188,000, according to the latest census estimates.
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a day ago
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No Firefighter Is Surprised by What Just Happened in Idaho
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. On Sunday, 20-year-old Wess Roley, it's alleged, started a wildfire near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, then lay in wait for firefighters to respond. When they did, he apparently opened fire, killing Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Frank Harwood and Coeur d'Alene Fire Department Battalion Chief John Morrison. He also critically wounded Coeur d'Alene Fire Department engineer David Tysdal. Roley was found dead, with a shotgun by his side, later that day. The attack dominated headlines, becoming a global story and immediately sparking political tribal skirmishes on social media. The enormous interest makes sense. It's a horrible tragedy. We expect this kind of thing when it comes to police officers or other professionals for whom violence is a tool of the trade. Hearing that other crisis responders, especially firefighters, who are unarmed and there only to help, have come under fire could be shocking. But not to me, and not, I suspect, to other firefighters. Last year, almost to the day, I gathered together in a sweltering high school auditorium with about 50 firefighters, EMTs, and a small cadre of cops to undergo rescue task force training, which focuses on how civilian personnel, like firefighters, can partner with armed law enforcement to render critical aid to victims in a mass-casualty incident. The training was highly effective, emphasizing command and control, triage, trauma life support, and casualty evacuation. It lasted just a few hours and was packed with critical information, so I tried to pay close attention. I'll admit that I did have to put in some effort. Because, for the most part, I'd already been through it when I took Tactical Combat Casualty Care training before deploying to Iraq in 2007. While tweaked somewhat to deal with a domestic incident (such as dealing with distraught parents during a school shooting), the Venn diagram for the two trainings was almost a circle. Indeed, the idea that responders to shooting incidents, whether armed or unarmed, should undergo TCCC training is an element of the 2013 Hartford Consensus. This was a kind of national throwing up of the hands that accepted that shootings could not be stopped, and shifted focus to a more effective response, recommending that responders adopt a tripartite mission when time is of the essence: 1) Stop the killing, 2) stop the dying, and 3) save as many as you can. The Hartford Consensus contains elements of a variety of mass casualty programs, including Federal Emergency Management Agency, emergency medical services protocols, advanced trauma life support, Stop the Bleed, and Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, the civilian equivalent of TCCC. The protocols of the instruction were so eerily similar to my Iraq pre-deployment training as to evoke intense déjà vu, and not just in terms of the triage discussion—the brutal calculus wherein first responders make the impossible decision to focus overstretched resources on those who are most likely to be saved, with the tacit understanding that there are those who will have to wait, perhaps interminably, for help. I also recognized the trauma life support measures, from tourniquet application, to the instruction in how to correctly vent a sucking chest wound, to the direction to use an elbow, shoulder, or knee to apply pressure to a convex surface. We covered wound packing (stuffing the hole with the Curlex rolled gauze we habitually carried in Iraq for that purpose in the hopes of stopping bleeding), dealing with clotting powder, and stabilizing victims for transport. But the most striking commonality was the way this training taught unarmed first responders to move with armed operators in the 'warm zone,' an area where the active shooter was not immediately present but where a shooting threat could still manifest. Rescue task force guidance stridently reinforced the lesson that unarmed civilian firefighters like me would be required to move in the warm zone to assist with all of the duties required above, necessarily placing us at risk of … well … getting shot. As a hedge against this possibility, law enforcement officers would be assigned to our contact team with the duty of protecting us and engaging any suspects who opened fire. As a targeting officer (a kind of tactical intelligence analyst) in Iraq, I was armed, but using that weapon was not my job. I carried it as a last resort. Instead, I relied on the 'hard operators' in my team to keep me safe, knowing that if they fell, I had at least a means of holing up and shooting it out with the enemy until the quick reaction force could extract me. Much of the training I received before deploying to Iraq centered on how I could move and integrate with hard operators in my team, staying out of their way until I was needed. This instruction reflects the reality of rising levels of violence directed at firefighters. There are the instances when we have to respond to active shooter incidents, but also, there are the times people shoot at or assault us, as happened in Coeur d'Alene. In 2023 Drexel University's Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends noted a 69 percent increase in assaults on firefighters from 2021 to 2022 (from 350 to 593). Many of these incidents occur during medical calls, rather than fire responses. And this number may be an undercount, as FIRST looked only at those incidents reported in the media. I can personally attest that in the hypermasculine and stoic culture of the fire service, a minor assault that didn't result in injury or generate media attention could easily go unremarked on. Indeed, in the District of Columbia in 2023, the firefighters union complained of an increase in assaults against firefighters, describing the attacks as occurring 'fairly often.' The problem isn't confined to the United States. Three-quarters of German firefighters experienced some form of public violence during a response as of February of this year. A recent assault on a Canadian firefighter prompted changes to the criminal code to include firefighters and emergency medical services, and a small town in British Columbia authorized 15,000 Canadian dollars to purchase body armor for firefighters after an attack. While the impact of warfare is obviously a separate scenario, I would be remiss not to note the terrible toll Russia's invasion of Ukraine is taking on European firefighters. Numbers from the U.K. show that the figures are even worse for EMS responders, with whom firefighters usually work closely. The critical question is: why? The answer is complex, evolving, and desperately in need of attention. Spiraling distrust of institutions is an obvious culprit, and the tight bond between fire and police services, who often share resources, means that tensions in the rapport between the public and police are reflected on anyone showing up to a crisis with a uniform on. Then there's the increase in mental health–related calls, which frequently put firefighters in situations in which they are dealing with potentially unstable and reactive individuals like Roley, with the corresponding potential for violent outcomes. But the bottom line is that we don't know why this is happening, only that it is. The American fire service is largely dependent on volunteers and is already under increasing stress from climate change, a decline in volunteerism, and shifting technological demands. Violence against firefighters will only make this worse and may affect the decisionmaking of the people on which the entire system depends. I'm not getting paid for this—why am I risking my life? is a question Americans contemplating volunteering may be forgiven for asking. Given the trends, it's a question for which we owe them an answer. The time for formal, funded, and organized study of the reasons for violence against crisis responders is now.
a day ago
Probe into Idaho firefighter ambush suspect digging into childhood, gun familiarity
As the investigation into the deadly firefighter ambush in Idaho over the weekend continues, police are still trying to piece together why suspect Wess Roley allegedly instigated the attack, a source familiar told ABC News. Law enforcement officials identified Roley as the suspected gunman after he was found dead on Canfield Mountain with a shotgun nearby. Two firefighters were killed -- Frank Harwood, 42, a battalion chief with the Kootenai County Fire & Rescue Department and John Morrison, 52, battalion chief of the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department -- and another firefighter, Dave Tysdal, of the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department, was injured while responding to the brush fire, which officials believe Roley purposely started before the ambush. Part of the investigation into Roley's background is focusing on his childhood in Arizona, where he lived with his mother and stepfather, the sources said. Authorities have spoken with some of Roley's immediate family, though it's unclear what they've said, the source added. Police in Idaho have publicly stated that they believe Roley acted alone and that they don't believe the attack on firefighters had any connection to terrorism. Growing up around firearms The source familiar with the investigation, however, said that authorities learned Roley grew up with a family that had firearms and felt comfortable handling them. The source said Roley's stepfather lawfully possessed many firearms. Photos posted to the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Roley's mother and stepfather, reviewed by ABC News, reflect that familiarity with firearms. Nearly half of Arizona residents own firearms, according to Everytown Research and Policy. In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, a former classmate of Roley's said that while the alleged sniper was always "really different," he still has "a hard time trying to correlate the same Wess that I grew up with to the Wess that did what he did." "I don't know why he did it, and it's -- it's shocking to me," said the former classmate Dieter, who didn't want his last name used publicly. "It's something that villains do, plain and simple." Dieter described Wess Roley as someone who was unusually outspoken in the strident ways he would defend his views. Extremist views in high school Dieter claimed Roley was someone who talked about Nazism, who was "very pro-gun," who spoke of wanting to join the military, who would often make drawings of bombs and military vehicles and who allegedly got in trouble once for drawing swastikas in a textbook. Roley would also say "awful things" related to the border crisis, Dieter said. Dieter said he and his friends would brush off all the comments as "Wess just being Wess," trying to say outlandish things to be "edgy" and stand out. Dieter said Roley never spoke much about his family or his background, except he allegedly often claimed to have been born in Germany and to be more German and "more patriotic" than others. According to Dieter, he and Wess were "never close," but they were part of the same friend group -- going to school together in the Phoenix area beginning in late elementary school and continuing until sophomore year of high school, when Dieter moved to Colorado. During their freshman year of high school, however, Dieter claimed Roley "definitely was becoming more kind of unhinged in what he would say... and what he thought was right." Roley's family's attorney, Justin P. Whittenton, shared a statement on behalf of the family on Monday, saying they "intend to fully cooperate with authorities in seeking answers." "At this time, we, the family of Wess Roley would like to offer our most heartfelt condolences to the families of those whose lives were taken and to the community of Coeur d'Alene at large," the family said in the statement. "There are no words that can suffice for this tragedy and the infinite losses suffered by those affected by this shooting. We do not understand why this happened or how this came about," the family added.
Yahoo
2 days ago
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What we know about Idaho firefighters, sniper who ambushed them
An Idaho community is reeling days after a man set a brush fire and ambushed responding firefighters, fatally shooting two and injuring a third. Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Frank Harwood and Coeur d'Alene Fire Department Battalion Chief John Morrison were killed in the June 29 shooting, authorities said. Coeur d'Alene Fire Department Dave Tysdal is recovering from his injuries after two surgeries, according to Coeur d'Alene Fire Chief Tom Greif. "This community lost two dedicated public servants," Gabe Eckert, president of the Coeur d'Alene Firefighters' union, said at a news conference Monday. "These men were dedicated firefighters; they were dedicated to their community. These guys were hard workers who loved their families." Officials identified the suspect, who is also deceased in an apparent suicide, as 20-year-old Wess Roley. Roley's body was discovered after a six-hour manhunt that drew a response of hundreds of law enforcement officials from local, state and federal agencies. Here's what we know: The firefighters responded to a call at about 1:21 p.m. on June 29 that there was a fire on the east side of Canfield Mountain near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a city of about 57,000 residents in the northwest part of the state. At 2 p.m., firefighters broadcast there were shots fired, officials said. The shots prompted a response from hundreds of law enforcement officers, with those on the scene exchanging gunfire with the suspect, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said. 'This was a total ambush," Norris said. "These firefighters did not have a chance." Investigators used cell phone data to locate a signal that hadn't moved since about 3:16 p.m. and discovered the body of the suspect, authorities announced just after 7:40 p.m. As the manhunt unfolded, the brush fire grew unchecked until it was deemed safe for firefighters to access, the Idaho Department of Lands said. As of the evening of June 30, it was being held at about 26 acres with no evacuations or structures at risk, the department said in an update. The suspect, a transient with a history of "minor" run-ins with police, appeared to be living out of his car at the time of the shooting, Norris said. Investigators are still looking into a possible motive and what brought Roley to Coeur d'Alene, he said. Past encounters with law enforcement were mostly about alleged trespassing, officials said. He came from an 'arborist family" and appeared to have fired from up a tree, Norris said. The suspect "at one point wanted to be a firefighter," according to Norris. "We don't know if there's a nexus between that desire and what happened," the sheriff told reporters. Former classmates remembered Roley in interviews with USA TODAY as having "Nazi tendencies" and "obsessed with guns." Read more. The firefighters killed in the attack were remembered as "selfless public servants." Harwood, 42, had been with the Kootenai agency for 17 years, according to Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Christopher Way. He was married with two children. "He did an amazing job," Way said. "This loss is felt by so many." Morrison, 52, had been with the Coeur d'Alene department since 1996, according to Coeur d'Alene Fire Chief Tom Greif. Eckert, of the firefighters' union, shared a recent memory with Morrison of smoking cigars on a backyard patio. "We talked about being better fathers, we talked about being better leaders, and we talked about being better firefighters," Eckert said. "I'm so incredibly grateful that that gets to be my last memory with him." Contributing: John Bacon, Michael Loria, Christopher Cann, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Josh Meyer and Will Carless, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What we know about slain Idaho firefighters, sniper suspect Wess Roley
