Spanish
Authorities in the United States have identified Wess Roley, 20 years old, as the man who started a fire on Canfield mountain, in Idaho, and who opened fire on the firefighters who came to the scene, causing the death of two of them.
According to the preliminary version of the Police, Roley would have intentionally caused the fire last Sunday in this wooded area of the northwest of the country, to then ambush the emergency teams. According to information from the CNN chain, the fire has already affected about ten hectares and is still active.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris offered new details about Sunday's ambush on Canfield Mountain, north of Coeur d’Alene, a popular recreation area. According to Norris, Wess Roley lived in his vehicle, had aspired to be a firefighter in the past, and had only had a handful of minor contacts with the local police.
The passerby, 20 years old, attacked the first responders after they asked him to move his vehicle, the sheriff said on Monday. "We have not been able to find a manifesto," the sheriff said, adding that the motive was still unknown.
Norris said the victims' families are "in a state of shock - absolutely. They are in shock and are still processing it."
Roley had started a fire with flint, and the firefighters who arrived at the scene were met with an unexpected shootout. They took shelter behind the fire trucks, but two died and a third was injured during a shootout that lasted several hours.
According to Norris, Roley later committed suicide. "We know he was a transient," the sheriff said. "We know he lived here for most of 2024. But as for when he got here, why he was here, why he chose this place... I don't know."
The grandfather of Wess Roley, Dale Roley, told CNN that his grandson came from a family dedicated to tree care and had been working in that sector while trying to define his professional future. “He wanted to be a firefighter; he worked with trees and wanted to be a forest firefighter”, said Dale Roley. “As far as I know, he was actually looking for it”.
According to his grandfather, Wess possessed a shotgun and a long rifle, although it has not been confirmed if those were the weapons used in the attack, which authorities have described as a sniper ambush.
Dale Roley added that they kept in weekly contact, but hadn't spoken in the last month because Wess had lost his phone. In addition, he pointed out that the young man had family and close friends, and that last year he had traveled on vacation to Hawaii with his mother, according to social media posts.
“He wasn't a loner,” Dale Roley told the American network CNN. “We had no reason to suspect he was involved in anything like that.” He also expressed the hope that his grandson was not responsible for the shooting.
Public records indicate that the suspect had previously lived in the Phoenix area. An athletics-related website shows that he was part of a local high school team and belonged to the class of 2024. Authorities reported on a photograph published by Wess Roley on his Instagram account. In the image, subsequently deleted, Roley appears kneeling or sitting, dressed in dark camouflage clothing, made up and wearing a mask, in addition to carrying ammunition. The publication included the song “Hunter” (cazador, in English) by the singer Björk. Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris noted that the suspect's social media content was deleted, although it is unknown who carried out the action. In addition, he reported that the suspect apparently shot himself, and that before the attack, he had a "discussion" with the firefighters. Norris said that "they are still in the process of investigation" and did not provide details about the interaction between the shooter and the firefighters. The authorities have not been able to find a criminal record for the 20-year-old suspect, but local police have interacted with him five times, said the Kootenai County sheriff, according to CNN.A Turbulent Childhood
Court documents reveal that Roley went through family difficulties in his childhood. His mother filed for divorce in September 2015, when he was 10 years old, alleging in the papers that her husband had threatened her, pushed her to the ground and “opened the walls several times”."He threatened to sit outside my house with a sniper rifle or burn it down", she wrote.
A judge issued a protection order to prevent the father from having contact with his wife or child, although he later modified the measure to remove the minor after a statement from the father, in which he assured: “I am not a danger to my son or anyone else” and that his wife “did not tell the truth in her statement”. The divorce was finalized in November 2015, and the mother's house was designated as Wess's "primary residence." The father of Roley spoke briefly with a CNN reporter outside his home in Priest River, Idaho, and said he did not maintain a close relationship with his son, whom he had not seen since a family gathering the previous year. He did not respond to subsequent calls related to the accusations documented a decade ago. The suspect's mother also did not answer calls made on Monday morning.Details of the accident
The shooting began at approximately 2:00 PM local time, about half an hour after the Kootenai County Emergency Management Office began fire containment efforts on Canfield Mountain, a natural park located east of Coeur d’Alene. The county sheriff, Bob Norris, indicated that the suspect's cell phone was instrumental in locating his position as a sniper, allowing the threat to be neutralized. Approximately 300 agents participated in the operation, including FBI personnel and reinforcements from other areas. A third firefighter was also injured in the attack and is currently “fighting for his life”, according to the sheriff, who confirmed that “it was totally an ambush” and that the firefighters “didn’t have any chance”.Roley was found dead in the mountainous area, next to a weapon. Authorities do not rule out the possibility of more hidden weapons in the area.
In social media, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, expressed her gratitude to the "incredible" members of the FBI "on the ground helping local authorities in Idaho." For her part, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, stated that her department “is actively monitoring” the situation in Coeur d’Alene and assured that “justice will be served”. The Idaho Governor, Brad Little, also spoke out, stating he was "heartbroken" by what he described as a "direct and atrocious attack", and urged the state's citizens to "pray for" the firefighters and their families.
