{"id":45141,"date":"2025-07-23T03:54:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45141"},"modified":"2025-07-23T03:54:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T08:54:31","slug":"suspect-in-fatal-shooting-of-idaho-firefighters-left-note-about-going-into-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=45141","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in fatal shooting of Idaho firefighters left note about going \u2018into battle\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The man who authorities believe fatally shot two Idaho firefighters<\/a> before killing himself had once tried to enter the military and left a note addressed to his father in which he wrote he would “go into battle,\u201d the Kootenai County sheriff said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wess Roley<\/a>, 20, set a brush fire on Canfield Mountain near Coeur D\u2019Alene on June 29 and then opened fire on responding firefighters,<\/a> authorities said, in what they have described as an ambush. He later killed himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roley had tried to enter the U.S. Army in Arizona in 2023 and again in Idaho in 2024, but he never followed through on appointments and was disqualified, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said in a news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’d also entered a Coeur d\u2019Alene fire station in May and asked about becoming a firefighter, believing he’d be able to start that day, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When told there was a process, including tests and interviews, Roley became frustrated, and “it was described to us as he left there in a very, very frustrated and agitated state,” Norris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A handwritten letter was found in Roley\u2019s truck addressed to his father, Norris said at Tuesday\u2019s news conference. Investigators found a drawing at his home of someone with what appeared to be a shotgun with the words “kill kill kill,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Tomorrow I shall go into battle, if I survive it would be with utmost dishonor,” the letter found in the truck reads in part, Norris said, showing an image of the document. The letter also read, “I bid thee farewell.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At around 1 p.m. the day of the shooting, Roley \u201ccommitted arson by lighting a series of fires to initiate a response from local fire departments,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At around 1:40 p.m. firefighters asked Roley to move his truck and \u201cthe contact is being described as confrontational,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At around 1:50 p.m. Roley shot and wounded Coeur d\u2019Alene firefighter\/engineer David Tysdal, Norris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithin milliseconds\u201d he then fatally shot Coeur d\u2019Alene Fire Battalion Chief John Morrison and Kootenai County Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Frank J. Harwood, the sheriff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firefighters died instantly, Norris said. Roley’s body was spotted by a drone at around at around 6:53 p.m. in the heavily wooded area, and officials said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a premeditated ambush, a pure act of evil against the people we look to for help,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation remains ongoing, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The man who authorities believe fatally shot two Idaho firefighters before killing himself had once tried to enter the military and left a note addressed to his father in which he wrote he would “go into battle,\u201d the Kootenai County sheriff said Tuesday. Wess Roley, 20, set a brush fire on Canfield Mountain near Coeur D\u2019Alene on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[8850,1178,1530,1186],"class_list":["post-45141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-firefighters","tag-idaho","tag-shooting","tag-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45143,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45141\/revisions\/45143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}