The suspected sniper believed to have intentionally set a blaze in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Sunday to ambush firefighters and police, killing at least two, is now identified as 20-year-old Wess Roley.
“We do believe that the suspect started the fire, and we do believe that it was an ambush and it was intentional,” Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris told reporters. “These firefighters did not have a chance.”
Ironically, there are indications Roley himself sought to be a firefighter.
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“His grandfather, Dale Roley, told NBC News that ‘something must have snapped’ for his grandson to have committed such violence, particularly against firefighters,” the network reported.
“He actually really respected law enforcement,” Dale Roley said. “He loved firefighters. It didn’t make sense that he was shooting firefighters. Maybe he got rejected or something.”
The grandfather speculated that Wess Roley’s height of 5-foot-8 may have hindered him from becoming a firefighter.
“I know he had been in contact to get a job with a fire department,” Dale Roley said. “He wanted to be part of a team that he sort of idolized.”
He said his grandson attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona, where his mother lives, and lived with him in Oklahoma for several months before moving to Idaho last summer to be closer to his father, according to NBC.
He used descriptors for Wess including “nervous,” “high strung” and “kind of a loner,” but said those were “normal issues for kids these days.”
Dale Roley also said Wess had recently lost his phone, making his life more of a mystery.
“We didn’t know where he was working,” he noted. “He did have a lot of heart.”
“I feel real terrible for those killed,” he added.
Bruce Mattare, chairman of the Kootenai County board of county commissioners, said: “I cannot fathom why anyone would commit such a heinous act.”
“This kind of senseless violence is unheard of here.”
CNN reported: “Court documents show that Roley had a tumultuous family life growing up. His mother filed for divorce in September 2015, when her son was 10 years old, and wrote in court documents that her husband had threatened her, pushed her to the ground, and ‘punched several holes in the walls.’
“He threatened to sit outside my house with a sniper rifle or burn my house down,” she wrote.
“A judge granted a protective order preventing Roley’s father from having contact with his wife or son, but later amended the order to remove the son after his father wrote in a court filing that ‘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 granted in November 2015, and Roley’s mother was designated as his ‘primary residential parent.’”
On social media, there are numerous posts about Wess Roley, with some saying he “appears to be a young man transitioning,” while others say his parents, being MAGA supporters of Donald Trump, “groomed” him to be violent.
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
Related:
- Update: Suspect Deceased in Kootenai County Ambush
- Kootenai County, Idaho – Multiple Firefighters Shot in Ambush
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