Wess Roley, Coeur d’Alene sniper was obsessed with swastikas, guns & video games along with Neo Nazi themes as Instagram image showed him in balaclava ready for combat as the 20 year old grew up surrounded by weapons, guns along with his military father.
A report has described the 20 year old sniper alleged to have fired at first respondents at an Idaho mountain after intentionally lighting a blaze to draw in targets in an ambush being morbidly obsessed with swastikas, guns and being an avid player of video games.
Former classmates of Wess Roley said the alleged sniper would graffiti his notebooks with drawings of swastikas and guns.
Harry Standley had attended middle and high school with Roley, telling USA Today he would play the video game Call of Duty with him.
Wess Roley:
Graduate of North Phenoix Prep
Mom is a hunter (and kind of a bad ass)
Grandfather is in the Arizona archery club. pic.twitter.com/e4XyaOxpWR— Brian’s Breaking News and Intel (@intelFromBrian) June 30, 2025
Wess Roley, Coeur d’Alene sniper was incel who wanted a girlfriend
According to Standley, fellow students recalled seeing the drawings and told the outlet: ‘We were all pretty scared of him.’
Dieter Denen, who also attended school with Roley, also recalled the swastika drawings.
He told the outlet: ‘We all thought he was just messing around — that that was his way of trying to stand out’, describing him as trying to ‘be edgy”.
Standley said Roley left high school during his sophomore year, saying he believes he was expelled over ‘some trouble with a girl’.
According to him, Roley had also turned up at school with his hair shaved off, telling people he had dreams of joining the army.
‘Everybody just thought he was weird. He was also obsessed with guns’, he added.
The statements follow images of Roley wearing a t-shirt of a death metal band that have links with a known neo-Nazi.
Coeur D’Alene pastor mentored sniper who recognised he had the devil in him
Of note, the allegations of the Roley having ‘Nazi tendencies’ follow claims an Idaho woman made in a 6 minute video in which she claimed mentoring Roley while he lived in the wild. According to the woman, Stephanie Anna, a local Coeur d’Alene pastor, the then 19 year old had expressed curiosity and fascination with white nationalism.
During a press conference on Monday, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris referenced a picture which Roley had posted to his Instagram prior to the shootings.
The photograph shows Roley wearing a balaclava with a coal-like substance smeared on his face, as well as a belt of rifle shells.
He also shared a Bjork song hours before the shooting that included a chilling warning in its lyrics: ‘I’m going hunting.’
Officials said preliminary information indicates the suspect acted alone in the shooting, and detectives have not yet identified a motive.
Police said Roley was born in California, and he also lived in Arizona before moving to Idaho. It remained unclear when the 20 year old, who was described as transient began living in his car despite being near his father, Jason Roley and his new wife along with his biological mother and his step father.
Images shared on social media showed the mother and her husband being avid supporters of the MAGA movement.
The Nettleton Gulch Fire authorities say the fire Roley started on Sunday had spread to 26 acres over Canfield Mountain.
By Monday afternoon, the fire was listed as being ‘reasonably contained’, after first responders ‘stopped significant forward progress’.
