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.
The attack stunned some members of the suspect’s family as his name began circulating in news reports on Monday, and they initially thought he could have been at the scene as a volunteer. Wess Roley’s grandfather told NBC News that “something must have snapped” for his grandson to have committed such violence, particularly against firefighters.
“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.”
Preliminary information indicates the suspect acted alone in the shooting Sunday, and officials have not yet identified a motive.
Dale Roley said his grandson, who attended high school in Phoenix, where his mother lives, lived with him in Oklahoma for several months before moving to Idaho last summer to be closer to his father. Neither parent could immediately be reached for comment.
His grandfather said his grandson’s height, standing around 5-foot-8, might have prevented 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 added that his grandson had worked at a tree service and thought he had the proper tree-climbing skills to be an asset to a fire department fighting wildfires. He also knew how to use a firearm and would go hog hunting.
There were times the suspect appeared “nervous” and “high strung” and “kind of a loner” — what his grandfather chalked up as “normal issues for kids these days.” But, he added, he didn’t know him to be violent with others.
Wess Roley’s childhood may have been tumultuous at times, court records show.
Documents filed in a Maricopa County, Arizona, court in 2015 show his mother, Heather Lynn Cuchiara, sought an order of protection against Roley’s father and her then-husband, Jason Roley. She said that in October 2015, Jason Roley was arrested for criminal damage and assault after he allegedly went to her home and threatened to commit suicide. Heather said things escalated, and Jason Roley punched holes in the walls, destroyed her cellphone and pushed her to the ground.
Heather expressed concerns about there being drugs and two guns in Jason Roley’s home, according to the documents.
In another alleged incident in November 2015, she said Jason Roley had told her that he would be “waiting outside with a sniper rifle,” according to the document. She asked that the order of protection include their son, Wess Roley, as a protected person. (He was 10 at the time.)
Records also show that in November 2015, Jason Roley requested a hearing and said that he was not a danger to his son or anyone else and accused Heather of not telling the truth.
The couple divorced in November 2015.
More recently, Wess Roley had lost his phone, his grandfather said, so getting in contact with him had become difficult until someone found it. That made his life more of a mystery.
“We didn’t know where he was working,” Dale Roley added.
“He did have a lot of heart,” the grandfather said, describing him as someone who was looking for his next path in life.
“I feel real terrible for those killed,” he added.
Officials have not publicly identified the two slain firefighters. One was from the Coeur D’Alene Fire Department, and the other was from Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, authorities said.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said Sunday that the third firefighter was stable but “fighting for his life” in the hospital.
Calls of a brush fire first came in at 1:21 p.m. local time. At 2 p.m., firefighters reported that they were being shot at.
Around 300 law enforcement officers, including local and federal forces, were involved in the operation to find the shooter.
Authorities said some officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect, although it was not immediately clear if police killed him. Cellphone location data and a signal on Canfield Mountain was used to help track the suspect’s movements and locate his body, they added.
Idaho State Police said it would investigate the shooting, and the local coroner would examine the causes of death.
The Nettleton Gulch Fire on the mountain reportedly grew to about 20 acres overnight, and crews were expected to continue battling the blaze on Monday.
Bruce Mattare, chairman of the Kootenai County board of county commissioners, said at a news conference Sunday that it would be a day the community, nestled in Idaho’s panhandle, “will not forget.”
“I cannot fathom why anyone would commit such a heinous act,” he said. “This kind of senseless violence is unheard of here.”