A 20-year-old man who had been living out of his vehicle ambushed a team of firefighters responding to a wildfire in northern Idaho, fatally shooting two of them and critically wounding another after they asked him to move his car, authorities said Monday.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris identified the suspect as Wess Roley, a transient with minor prior interactions with police who once aspired to be a firefighter. Roley later took his own life in the mountains after a manhunt involving helicopters, snipers, and cellphone tracking by the FBI.
The deadly incident unfolded Sunday at Canfield Mountain near Coeur d’Alene, a popular hiking and recreation area. According to Sheriff Norris, Roley had used a flint to ignite a blaze, luring firefighters to the area. When they arrived and requested that he move his vehicle, he opened fire.
“There was an interaction with the firefighters. It had something to do with his vehicle being parked where it was,” Norris said.
Victims Identified
The fallen were Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, 42, a 17-year veteran of Kootenai County Fire and Rescue and an Army National Guard veteran; and John Morrison, 52, a battalion chief with Coeur d’Alene Fire Department who had served for 28 years.
David Tysdal, 47, a fire engineer, was critically injured and has since undergone two successful surgeries, authorities said.
“I don’t know that we’re ever going to be able to guarantee people’s peace of mind after something like this,” said Fire Chief Christopher Way. “But we’re taking every possible step to protect our responders.”
Suspect’s Background and Mental Decline
Sheriff Norris said Roley had ties to California and Arizona and had lived in Idaho throughout most of 2024. His motive remains unknown, and investigators have not found any manifesto or written explanation for the attack.
A former roommate, T.J. Franks Jr., said Roley lived with him in Sandpoint for six months and described increasingly erratic behavior—including throwing gang signs at a security camera and shaving his head. Police were contacted during that time, but no arrest was made.
“We just noticed him starting to decline,” Franks recalled. “He started acting a little weird.”
Community in Mourning
The attack has shaken the tight-knit city of Coeur d’Alene, home to about 55,000 residents near the Washington state border. Hours after the tragedy, community members lined Interstate 90 with American flags to honor the firefighters as their remains were transported to a medical examiner’s office in Spokane, Washington.
Idaho Governor Brad Little ordered flags across the state to be flown at half-staff until after the victims’ memorial services.
“We have never seen an act of violence like this against our firefighters before,” Little said in a statement. “This is not Idaho. This tragedy is felt deeply by the firefighting community and beyond.”
Fire Containment and Continuing Danger
While the shelter-in-place order has been lifted, the fire itself is still active. As of Monday, the Idaho Department of Lands reported the blaze had burned approximately 26 acres. Fire crews, now accompanied by law enforcement on every call, said the fire had been “reasonably contained.”
Nearby residents, like Bruce Deming, said they initially noticed smoke Sunday but were puzzled by the lack of aerial firefighting activity—until they learned about the shooting.
“They weren’t flying because they were worried about being shot at,” he said.
This unprecedented ambush has not only left a community grieving but also raised serious questions about the safety of emergency responders in the line of duty—particularly in rural areas where help may be far away.
