The suspect and victims in the brazen shooting on a mountain that killed two Idaho firefighters and injured another have been identified.
The victims on Monday were identified at a news conference as Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, 42, of Northern Lakes Fire; and Coeur d’Alene Fire Department Battalion Chief John Morrison, 52.
Morrison had been with Coeur d’Alene Fire since 1996, while Harwood had been with Northern Lakes 17 years, officials said.
“These men were dedicated firefighters,” a fire official said at the news conference.
The ambush also critically injured 47-year-old firefighter Dave Tysdal, who had undergone two surgeries as of noon Monday, officials said.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris identified the suspect Monday as 20-year-old Wess Roley.
Reached outside his home north of Priest River Monday afternoon, Roley’s father, Jason Roley, called the killings “a tragedy.”
“I feel really sorry for the families of the firefighters,” he said. “It’s just horrible. I can’t imagine he would ever do anything what they’re saying happened.”
Investigators still have yet to find a motive for the killings – the younger Roley did not leave a manifesto after he died by suicide on Canfield Mountain following the shootout, Norris told reporters at a news conference Monday. An Instagram photo of Wess Roley in which he is pictured clad in camouflage gear and face paint with Bjork’s “Hunter” playing over the post was then distributed by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.
“These social media posts are what we call open-source information,” Norris said. “This is all an effort to find out intent.”
There is evidence Wess Roley wanted to be a firefighter at one point, Norris said, but investigators have not come across any interactions with local firefighters of note or whether it had anything to do with the attack.
The shooting suspect also had no criminal history and no survivalist training, but grew up in a family of arborists who climbed trees living in California, Arizona and Idaho for periods of time.
Law enforcement believe Roley started the now-26-acre fire on Canfield Mountain to lure firefighters in what they are describing as an “ambush-style attack.” Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue crews arrived at 1:21 p.m. to the report of the blaze and found Wess Roley. The firefighters, now identified as Harwood and Morrison, had a “discussion” with him and asked Roley to move his truck.
At 2 p.m., fire crews reported they were being shot.
It’s believed future responders were being targeted from a tree that Wess Roley had perched himself in, Norris said, because law enforcement was also “engaging in gunfire” in the same direction.
“These firefighters didn’t have a chance,” Norris told reporters Sunday night.
Wess Roley’s truck is still in the middle of an active crime scene partly torched from the wildfire. Investigators haven’t recorded an inventory of his truck yet, Norris said. The truck is lying in an embankment after deputies pushed it over a cliff so the suspect couldn’t circle back around during the shootout and drive away.
Investigators eventually discovered a phone signal on the mountain that had been there since around 3:16 p.m. When they traced the phone, they found Wess Roley, dead with a shotgun underneath him. Law enforcement had to act quickly to remove his body because the wildfire was encroaching at high speeds, Norris has said. It took about an hour and a half to recover him from the mountain.
Wess Roley, who had been in the area “for the better part of 2024,” was also known to police, but not for anything criminal in nature – the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office has had three “interactions” with Wess Roley, and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department reported two. Each interaction was very minimal, like trespassing or a welfare check. Wess Roley was cooperative during these interactions, Norris said.
Wess Roley’s Instagram username is no longer available online. Norris said the account was wiped, but not by law enforcement.
At the time of the attack, social media users took the scanner traffic and posted it as it came through on Facebook. Some mistakenly reported a deputy had been shot, and others posted the audio of the scanner traffic as it came through, before any information was confirmed by officials.
“That is really hard on the families,” Norris said. “Had they heard that, they would be able to identify their voice of their loved one.”
A deleted Instagram post from Wess Roley is shown at a news conference Tuesday, June 30, 2025. (Alexandra Duggan/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
Coeur d’Alene-area residents strolling Monday morning through McEuen Park downtown wanted answers on the shocking attack and asked for prayers for the firefighters who were killed and injured.
Curt Polley said the city has seen “very little crime” in his 37 years living there.
“This is, like, a big deal,” said Polley, adding how the shooting has garnered worldwide attention. “Now, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has become front page.”
“It’s kind of sad, ‘cause it’s going to give us kind of a bad rap,” he added.
Rick and Carol Wadholm, of Hayden, simply wondered why the killings happened.
“For our guys to do their job, for someone waiting for them to hurt them, I’m sorry, but it’s beyond my imagination,” Carol Wadholm said. “I don’t understand why. Why, you know, and now families are without loved ones.”
She said they heard the news from a friend, whose son and grandson were called to provide water to help firefighters battle the blaze.
“He died for nothing; just to be hateful I guess,” Rick Wadholm said of the suspect.
His wife added, “and hurt families.”
Rick Wadholm said firefighters know the risks of the job, “but shot at? No. That’s what policemen do.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.