As the investigation into the Mortal Firefighter ambush in Idaho during the weekend, the police are still trying to rebuild why Wess Roley allegedly instigated the attack, said a familiarly familiar source.
The officials responsible for enforcing the law identified Roley as the alleged gunman after he was found dead in Canfield Mountain with a nearby shotgun.
Two firefighters were killed: Frank Harwood, 42, Battalion Chief with the Kootenai County Fire & Rescue Department and John Morrison, 52, head of the Battalion of the Fire Department of Coeur d’Airne, and another firefighter, Dave Tysdal, of the Fire Department of Coeur D’A Alene, was injured while responding to the brush fire, which officials believe it began to the environment.
Chief of the John Morrison Battalion, of the Fire Department of Coeur D’Airne (Left) and Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, of the Fire Department and Rescue of Kootenai
Courtesy of the 7th District
Part of the research on the background of Roley focuses on his childhood in Arizona, where he lived with his mother and stepfather, the sources said.
The authorities have talked to Roley’s immediate family, although it is not clear what they have said, the source added.
Police in Idaho has publicly declared that they believe that Roley acted alone and that they do not believe that the attack against firefighters had any connection with terrorism.
Growing around firearms
The source familiar with the investigation, however, said that the authorities learned to Roley grew with a family that had firearms and felt comfortable driving them. The source said that Roley’s stepfather legally owned many firearms.
The photos published in the Mother’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and Roley’s stepfather, reviewed by ABC News, reflect that familiarity with firearms.
Almost half of Arizona’s residents possess firearms, according to EveryTown Research and Policy.
The authorities shared an image of a publication on the social networks of the suspicious Wess Roley during a press conference in Hayden, Idaho, June 30, 2025.
ABC News
In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, a former Roley classmate said that, although the alleged sniper was always “really different”, he still has “difficulty trying to correlate the same Wess with whom I grew up with the Wess who did what he did.”
“I don’t know why he did it, and it is, it is shocking for me,” said former classmate Dieter, who did not want his last name to use publicly. “It is something that the villains do, simple and simple.”
Dieter described Wess Roley as someone who was unusually open in the strident forms in which he would defend his views.
Extremist views in high school
Dieter said that Roley was someone who talked about Nazism, who was “very pro-armas”, who spoke of wanting to join the military, who often made drawings of bombs and military vehicles and that supposedly got into trouble once to draw esvastics in a textbook.
Roley would also say “horrible things” related to the border crisis, Dieter said. Dieter said that he and his friends would brush all comments as “Wess simply being wess”, trying to say that extravagant things are “nervous” and stand out.
Dieter said Roley never talked much about his family or his background, except that he often claimed to have been born in Germany and be more German and “more patriotic” than others.
Two people are dead after firefighters were ambushed by an armed man while responding to a fire in Coeur d’Airne, Idaho, authorities said.
KXLY
According to Dieter, he and Wess were “never close”, but they were part of the same group of friends, going to school together in the Phoenix area from late primary school and continued until the second year of high school, when Dieter moved to Colorado.
However, during his first year of high school, Dieter said Roley “was definitely becoming more deranged in what he would say … and what he thought was correct.”
Roley’s Family’s lawyer, Justin P. Whittenton, shared a statement on the name of the family on Monday, saying that “they intend to completely cooperate with the authorities in the search for answers.”
Two people are dead after firefighters were ambushed by an armed man, or multiple gunmen, while responding to a fire in Coeur d’A Alene, Idaho, authorities said.
KXLY
“At this time, to us, to the family of Wess Roley, offer our most sincere condolences to the families of those whose lives were already carried out the community of Coeur d’Alene in general,” said the family in the statement.
“There are no words that can be enough for this tragedy and the infinite losses suffered by those affected by this shooting. We do not understand why this happened or how it arose,” the family added.
ABC News has communicated with Roley’s mother and stepfather to make more comments, but did not receive an immediate response.
