Little is known about Roley’s motivation, but interviews and court records reveal a troubled early home life and a disconnect from schoolmates, who saw him as an aggressive young man who liked to draw bombs and use firearms.
The man accused of fatally shooting two Idaho firefighters before killing himself last month had tried to join the fire department, and became angry when told he would need to go through training and testing.
Wess Roley also tried to join the Army twice — his father was an Army veteran — but was disqualified after failing to follow through on tasks and appointments, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said Tuesday at a press conference.
The new revelations offer a more complete picture of the 20-year-old’s resentments. Officials also presented evidence suggesting the attack was premeditated — a goodbye letter to his father they found in his truck and drawings in his home that appear to show a mountain parking lot with a shotgun being fired and a person aiming a rifle at his chin.
“Tomorrow, I shall go to battle,” Roley wrote to his father. “If I survive, it would be with upmost dishonor. I bid thee farewell.” Next to his signature were two symbols that appear to be runes linked to Nazi ideology.
Roley used gas, lighters and flint to start a series of fires at Canfield Mountain on June 29 to instigate a response, then shot at firefighters who asked him to move his vehicle, Norris said. He shot at others from a tree before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the sheriff said.
“This was a premeditated ambush, a pure act of evil against the people we look to for help,” Norris said.
Killed were Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, 42, and Coeur d’Alene Fire Department Battalion Chief John Morrison, 52. Coeur d’Alene Fire Engineer David Tysdal, 47, was hospitalized in critical condition.
Investigators hope to learn more from Roley’s social media accounts, but it’s clear that his frustrations were growing over time, the sheriff said.
Roley tried to become a soldier in Arizona in 2023 and again last year in Hayden, Idaho, “but failed to follow through on tasks and appointments, eventually being disqualified by the U.S. Army,” Norris said.
Then, one month before the shootings, Roley went to a Coeur d’Alene fire station asking about becoming a firefighter, Norris said.
“He had the state of mind that he would be able to start that day,” Norris said. “He was told there’s a process — you have a written exam, and a physical agility and a background investigation and an oral interview. The contact became agitated and frustrated. He left there in a very frustrated and agitated state.”
Beyond what the sheriff shared, little is known about Roley’s motivation, but Associated Press interviews and court records reveal a troubled early home life and a disconnect from schoolmates, who saw him as an aggressive young man who liked to draw bombs and use firearms.
Roley lived with his mother, Heather Caldwell-Cuchiara, and stepfather in Phoenix, Arizona, before moving to northern Idaho to live with his father, Jason Roley, in 2024.
Dieter Denen, who went to elementary, middle and high school with Roley, told the AP that Roley’s aggression and “racist” comments made classmates uncomfortable.
“He was really on edge a lot,” Denen said. Roley would say unkind or rude things to people of a different race, culture or religion, he said. “You’d kind of go, ‘what the heck — why would you say that — it’s a little messed up to say that,” he said.
Roley got in trouble for drawing a swastika in a school book, and also liked to draw bombs, planes and “military things,” Denen said. Roley also bragged about his time in Germany: “He would always tell me, “I’m a lot more German in every way compared to you.”
Denen said he couldn’t believe it when a friend texted an article about the shootings.
“It’s just so shocking,” Denen said. “With Wess, he was definitely different when we were younger but it’s hard to think that anyone could ever do something like that.”
Court records show his parents, Heather and Jason Roley, were married in San Bernardino, California, in 2008. Jason Roley served in the Army from 2007 to 2015, including two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, and left the service as a staff sergeant, an Army spokesperson said.
The family lived in Grafenwöhr, Germany, home to a large U.S. Army base, from 2010 to 2015, when Wess Roley was 5 to 10 years old. Records show his mother filed for divorce after they moved to Phoenix and sought a protection order saying Jason Roley posed a threat to her and their son. Her petition said he was an alcoholic and had been arrested for assaulting her on Oct. 1, 2015.
“He was very intoxicated,” she wrote. “He was crying inconsolably saying that he was going to commit suicide. Things escalated. He punched several holes in the walls, destroyed my cell phone, pushed me to the ground.”
Jason Roley texted her after his arrest saying he was going to kill himself, she wrote. “Jason verbally threatened me by saying he would be waiting outside with a sniper rifle and burn the place down,” she wrote. “He said the only thing stopping him from going through with it was going to prison.”
The judge ordered him to stay away from his wife and son and surrender any firearms. “I am not a danger to my son or anyone else,” Jason Roley responded. “The plaintiff did not tell the truth in her statement.”
The judge apparently believed her after a hearing. His order cited an act of domestic violence and said he might do it again. The protection would continue for the mother, but not their minor child.
Three years later, Jason Roley applied for a marriage license, with Sara Peterson. Their social media pages say they’re married and live in Priest River, Idaho, near Sandpoint, where Wess Roley had been living before he became homeless.
Email and phone messages seeking Jason Roley’s comment were not returned. His father, Dale Roley, wrote on Facebook that he’s the grandfather.
“I would like give my Condolence’s to all those family members who were Unfortunately Victims of yesterdays Crimes,” Dale Roley wrote. “Those good Brave Firefighters were just doing there Job they did not deserve this!”
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