Wess Val Roley Coeur D’Alene sniper who killed 2 firefighters along Canfield Mountain in Idaho was a loner with a difficult childhood who was a loner and who wanted to be a firefighter while working for his step-father as his parents are revealed to be MAGA supporters.
The suspect believed to have fatally shot two firefighters and wounded a third on Sunday as crews responded to a raging brush fire in northwest Idaho was identified on Monday as a 20-year-old man, Wess Val Roley whose family described him as a ‘loner’ who nevertheless dreamed of one day becoming a firefighter himself.
Wess Roley is suspected of intentionally setting the fire to ‘ambush’ firefighters according to two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.
His body was found with a gun in the area of the blaze in Canfield Mountain near Coeur D’Alene, authorities said, almost six hours after the shooting began, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris told a press conference Sunday.
Coeur D’Alene sniper family release statement saying ‘they do not understand’
Coeur D’Alene pastor mentored sniper who recognised he had the devil in him
Coeur d’Alene sniper was transient with no prior criminal history
Sheriff Norris declined did to say whether the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound or was fatally shot by authorities.
He said Wess Roley was living out of his vehicle, had once aspired to be a firefighter and had only a handful of minor contacts with area police, WDSU reported.
‘We know that he was a transient here,’ the sheriff said. ‘We know he lived here for the better part of 2024. But as far as when he got here, why he was here, why he chose this place — I don’t know.’
Coeur d’Alene sniper was transient with no prior criminal history
Coeur d’Alene sniper wanted to be a firefighter (but was he rejected?)
Sheriff Norris said local law enforcement had five prior interactions with him, including welfare checks and a trespassing incident, all of which were minor and did not result in any arrests or charges.
‘We don’t have any indication of a motive at this time,’ Norris said, adding that Roley appeared to be living out of his vehicle, which deputies pushed down an embankment during the incident to prevent him from using it to flee. Deputies also disabled firetrucks at the scene as a precaution, BNO News reported.
According to Norris, Roley may have aspired to become a firefighter, though no connection has been established between that and the shooting.
‘We cannot find any evidence that he has had any type of survivalist training,’ the official said, while noting the 20 year old suspect grew up in a family of arborists and had experience climbing trees, which may have aided him in ambushing responders.
Social media posts from Roley—that have since been removed—showed him wearing camouflage.
The attack stunned members of the suspect’s family as they initially thought he could have been at the scene as a volunteer. Wess Roley’s grandfather told NBC News that ‘something must have snapped’ for his grandson to have committed such violence, particularly against firefighters.
‘He actually really respected law enforcement,’ Dale Roley told NBC. ‘He loved firefighters. It didn’t make sense that he was shooting firefighters. Maybe he got rejected or something.’
Preliminary information indicates the suspect acted alone in the shooting Sunday, and officials have not yet identified a motive.
Who were Wess Roley’s parents?
Social media identified Roley as the son of Heather Lynn Caldwell-Cuchiara and stepson of Tony Cuchiara, both of whom are known supporters of the political MAGA movement.
Authorities have not confirmed whether Roley’s political affiliations played any role in the attack.
Dale Roley said his grandson, who attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona, where his mother lives, lived with him in Oklahoma for several months before moving to Idaho last summer to be closer to his father.
His grandfather said his grandson’s height, standing around 5-foot-8, might have prevented him from becoming a firefighter.
‘I know he had been in contact to get a job with a fire department,’ Dale Roley told NBC. ‘He wanted to be part of a team that he sort of idolized.’
He added that his grandson had worked at a tree service and thought he had the proper tree-climbing skills to be an asset to a fire department fighting wildfires. He also knew how to use a firearm and would go hog hunting.
There were times the suspect appeared “nervous” and “high strung” and “kind of a loner” — what his grandfather chalked up as ‘normal issues for kids these days.’ The grandfather insisted he didn’t know his grandson to be violent with others.
Wess Roley troubled childhood
Wess Roley’s childhood may have been tumultuous at times, court records show.
Documents filed in a Maricopa County, Arizona, court in 2015 show his mother, Heather Lynn Cuchiara, seeking an order of protection against Roley’s father and her then-husband, Jason Roley. She said that in October 2015, Jason Roley was arrested for criminal damage and assault after he allegedly went to her home and threatened to commit suicide. Heather said things escalated, and Jason Roley punched holes in the walls, destroyed her cellphone and pushed her to the ground.
Heather expressed concerns about there being drugs and two guns in Jason Roley’s home, according to the documents.
In another alleged incident in November 2015, she said Jason Roley had told her that he would be ‘waiting outside with a sniper rifle,’ according to the document. She asked that the order of protection include their son, Wess Roley, as a protected person. (He was 10 at the time.)
‘He threatened to sit outside my house with a sniper rifle or burn my house down,’ Roley’s mother wrote in a filing of her son’s father, according to CNN.
Records also show that in November 2015, Jason Roley requested a hearing and said that he was not a danger to his son or anyone else and accused Heather of not telling the truth.
The couple divorced in November 2015.
Sunday’s blaze which Roley had intentionally lit to ambush first respondents by Monday has reached 26 acres, but was said not to be threatening any structures. Crews were working to establish a containment line by nightfall despite difficult terrain.
The identities of the firefighters killed in the attack are expected to be released at a 4 p.m. local time press briefing.
The motive behind Sunday’s ambush remains under investigation.
