It started out as a normal response to a brush fire on Canfield Mountain in northern Idaho, but on Sunday, someone started shooting at firefighters as they fought the fire.
Officials say they think the gunman started the fire so he could shoot the firefighters who came to help. Two firefighters died, and a third was hurt very badly.
“This was a complete trap.” At a news conference Sunday night, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said, “These firefighters did not have a chance.”
A huge number of emergency workers responded to the attack, and for hours, they looked for an unknown number of shooters. Even after police arrived, the shots kept going off.
Later, police named one suspect as 20-year-old Wess Roley, a law enforcement official said. The police are still trying to figure out why this happened.
We also know the following about the targeted attack:
What happened during the shooting
Norris said that at 1:21 p.m., someone called the sheriff’s office to say there was a fire on the east side of Canfield Mountain in the city of Coeur d’Alene.
Around 2 p.m., firefighters who had been sent to the scene said they were being shot at on the mountain. This caused police to come help them while the fire continued to burn.
“Right now, send police, there’s an active shooter zone.” It was heard that one of the firefighters told dispatch, “They’re shot.” “BC 3 is down.” BC one is down. Everyone was shot. “This is now police code three up here.”
For the next 90 minutes, police officers from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, the Idaho State Police, and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department rushed to the scene and were caught in what Norris called a “exchange of fire” with what looked like bullets coming from many directions.
The sheriff said on Sunday, “We are taking sniper fire right now.”
The sheriff told reporters at the time that the people who were shooting looked like they were using “modern-day sporting rifles.”
“At this point, they are not showing any signs of wanting to give up, so I’m hoping that someone has a clear shot and can silence them,” he said.
Emergency Management for Kootenai County told people to stay put and stay away from the area.
During a news conference Monday, Norris said that deputies who came to the scene of the shooting pushed the suspect’s car down a slope to “protect life.” According to Norris, the deputies thought it was best to push the car so the suspect couldn’t get in it and run away.
People were told to stay away by Idaho Gov. Brad Little so that police and firefighters could do their jobs.
“Several brave firefighters were attacked today while they were on the scene of a fire in North Idaho,” Little wrote on X. “This is a terrible attack on our brave firefighters.” Let’s pray for them and their families while we wait to find out more. Teresa and I are really sad.
It looks like the suspect talked to firefighters before shooting.
Norris said Monday that the suspect “talked” with the firefighters who came to put out the brush fire before he shot and killed two of them.
The reason his car was parked where it was was important, the sheriff said.
She said, “We’re still in the process of investigating” what happened.
It has also been said that the suspect may have been shooting at first responders from a tree, he said.
“He talked to firefighters, so we don’t think he was in the tree at the time,” he said. “But we do think he fought deputies from the tree.”
Even though there is no proof that the suspect trained as a survivalist, the sheriff said that he or she grew up in a family of arborists and climbed a lot of trees.
Coeur d’Alene Fire Chief Tom Greif said Monday that Roley never sent them an application or talked to anyone about becoming a firefighter, even though the suspect’s grandfather said that he was interested. Chris Way, the chief of fire and rescue for Kootenai County, said they are still checking to see if he ever applied.
How the body of the suspect was found
The FBI and the Idaho National Guard were among the 300 police officers who helped with the response to the attack. Norris said that two helicopters with police snipers were also sent to help with the manhunt.
At 7:40 p.m., a SWAT team found a “deceased male” on Canfield Mountain after following a cell phone signal that had been picked up earlier. Noress said that a gun was found nearby.
Notris told reporters on Sunday night, “We have one dead shooter.” “Right now there is no danger to the community.”
Norris said on Monday that it looks like the suspect shot himself.
The man was thought to be the only shooter “based on the trajectory and the type of weapons that this person had that we were able to recover,” the sheriff said.
Police had to “scoop everything up” quickly because the fire was “rapidly approaching” the scene where the body was found, Norris said. Norris said, “We had to do what we had to do to preserve the body.” He also said, “We couldn’t preserve the scene the way we usually would like to.”
According to Norris, the suspect, who was found with a gun nearby, attacked firefighters on Sunday with a shotgun. However, investigators haven’t ruled out other types of guns as the investigation continues.
That person said, “We know for sure that a shotgun was used.” “We think that was a piece of one of the rifle slugs or another weapon,” he said. “We have some smaller projectiles.” At first, reports from the scene said that firefighters were being shot at by snipers.
The sheriff was asked if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives could use fragments to figure out where Roley bought the shotgun. They said they “haven’t gotten there yet” and are still looking into the scene.
He also had a flint fire starter with him, and Norris said that police think he used it to start the fire that firefighters first came to help with.
Two firefighters were killed, and one is still hurt.
Authorities say that two firefighters from the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and one from Kootenai County were killed in the shooting. A third person was hurt and is now recovering from two surgeries.
Frank Harwood, 42, was the chief of fire and rescue for Kootenai County, and John Morrison, 52, was the battalion chief for the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department.
Coeur d’Alene Fire Chief Tom Greif said that Dave Tysdal, an engineer who is 47 years old and has been with the fire department for 23 years, is in critical condition at Kootenai Health Hospital right now.
Commissioner Bruce Mattare of Kootenai County told reporters, “We lost two outstanding professionals of the highest quality.” He also said that the shooting was “senseless and tragic beyond words.”
Norris said, “Their families need help.”
Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Christopher Way said Monday that Harwood had been a member of the agency for 17 years and had been a combat engineer in the Army National Guard. Harwood was married and had two children.
Coeur d’Alene Fire Chief Tom Greif said that Morrison worked for the city for more than 28 years and rose through the ranks, from firefighter to battalion chief.
Attack slowed down the response to the fire
Norris said that efforts to put out the fire were slowed down because the suspect was still on the loose. He also said that no buildings were damaged.
The wildfire, which is now known as the Nettleton Gulch Fire, is only burning 26 acres of land right now and hasn’t grown, Norris said at a news conference on Monday.
Norris said that putting out the fire is “a slow progress.” “That terrain makes it very hard to get assets, ground assets up there.” A lot of water is being dropped from above by the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL), so that’s going pretty well.
Norris said that IDL thinks it will have a fire line around the fire by Monday night. A fire line is a barrier that stops a fire from spreading.
