Police Confirmed the Idaho Shooter, but We Still Don't Know Much About Him

Police have confirmed the rumored identity of the man who ambushed and killed firefighters in Idaho.

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris spoke out on the identity of 20-year-old Wess Roley, who had already been tentatively identified based on tracking the cellphone location data for a corpse found near the ambush site. Police have not confirmed a motive. Two firemen were killed and another injured in the shooting, which occurred when they arrived to address the fire that Roley allegedly started.

“There was an interaction with the firefighters,” Norris stated. “It had something to do with his vehicle being parked where it was.” Police said Roley likely shot himself, but it is possible he was mortally injured in a standoff with law enforcement that lasted for hours. “It appears right now, we have a shotgun that was used, but we’re still processing the scene,” Norris hedged.

“This was a total ambush,” Norris told reporters more emphatically. “These firefighters did not have a chance.” Roley had apparently been living out of his car and had five “minor” run-ins with law enforcement prior to the ambush.

While police said the encounters with law enforcement were “minor,” investigative journalist Sarah Fields reported that Roley was arrested in 2024 for felony assault with a deadly weapon after trying to knife a woman but pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor assault charge.

Roley’s identity was already revealed and circulating yesterday, with many people hoping to find clues on his social media. But that was a bust because the usual erasure of social media for a shooter had already occurred. PJ Media’s Paula Bolyard wrote:

Also, as per usual, the shooter's social media profiles have been scrubbed. The gatekeepers have decided that the public will not see his posts unless and until they decide to release them. Most likely, that won't happen until they are forced to release the files as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. That could take months, or even years.

Often, these shooters end up having radical leftist views, hence the online scrub. Sometimes they are also on dangerous prescription drugs that Big Pharma and all the media and politicians they’ve paid off want to hide. In any case, the motive is still unclear, and loads of social media posts are no longer publicly available.

Sarah Fields seems to have accessed Roley’s account before it disappeared:

Roley's social media activity, particularly on X, revealed disturbing content. He posted about his disdain for authority figures, including police and firefighters, and expressed radical views. His posts included threats and general hostility toward society, which raised concerns among those who followed him. Additionally, he was known to have made threats against his family, leading to a no-contact order being issued against him.

Roley appears to have been very unstable, whatever his motive. And unfortunately, the firefighters paid the price with their lives.