We now the name of the man who shot at firefighters fighting a brush fire on Canfield Mountain, north of Coeur d’Alene Sunday afternoon. He was 20-year old Wess Roley, found dead of a gunshot wound in the area. Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris tells us Roley is apparently the one who set the blaze then began shooting as the firefighters as they tried to quash the blaze. There was an exchange of gunfire but nobody knows — at this point — exactly how Roley’s life ended.
The Sheriff says it was a total ambush, saying “the firefighters did not have a chance.” He tells us Roley recently lived in Phoenix but may have had ties to Bonner County, Idaho. The Sheriff can come up no motive for the events of the day.
As for the identities of the firefighters, that information is being withheld. We do know that the two who died were members of the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department. The third victim, a member of Kootenai Fire & Rescue, has undergone surgery and is, according to Sheriff Norris, “fighting for his life.”
