2025 Coeur d'Alene shooting

Canfield Mountain is a forested ridge bordering the city's greenbelt which is popular with hikers and mountain-bike riders. North Idaho entered the 2025 fire season with above-average fuel loads following an unusually dry spring, prompting heightened wildfire alerts from the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL). == Timeline ==

At 1:21 p.m. PDT on June 29, 2025, Kootenai County dispatchers received a 9-1-1 call reporting a brush fire in Nettleton Gulch on the west flank of Canfield Mountain; it was accordingly given the name Nettleton Gulch fire. Around 2:00 p.m. the first engine companies—drawn from the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department, Kootenai County Fire & Rescue and the Northern Lakes Fire District—arrived on scene and promptly came under gunfire. Firefighters radioed that multiple shots were being fired and took cover behind their apparatus, temporarily suspending suppression efforts. Between 4:05 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. county officials issued a shelter-in-place order for neighborhoods east of downtown Coeur d'Alene, warning residents to remain indoors while the gunman was at large. At 7:40 p.m. SWAT officers found Roley dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in dense timber near the fireline; a firearm was recovered beside the body. Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris stated that evidence indicated Roley had set the fire specifically to ambush first responders and that he had acted alone. With the crime scene secured, Idaho Department of Lands crews hiked in between 7:30 and 10:00 p.m. and began cutting a hand-line around what was now a fire. == Victims ==

Two firefighters were killed while another was injured during the shooting. The deceased were identified as Battalion Chief Frank Harwood, 42, of Kootenai County Fire & Rescue, and Battalion Chief John Morrison, 52, of the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department. Harwood was a 17-year fire service veteran and also served in the Army National Guard, while Morrison had over 28 years of experience in fire service. The injured firefighter, Engineer David Tysdal, 47, suffered severe chest and spinal trauma and underwent three surgeries; he remained hospitalized in stable condition as of July 2. Despite being shot twice and pinned inside his disabled brush rig, Tysdal continued to transmit over the radio—reporting, "I'm inside the rig. ... I can't move", and providing key information to dispatchers. He described the shooter as wearing "dark clothing, maybe a mask", helping law enforcement narrow the suspect profile during the unfolding manhunt. Private memorial services for Battalion Chiefs John Morrison and Frank Harwood were announced on July 4, 2025, to be held the following week at the Hagadone Event Center in Coeur d'Alene. Public Celebrations of Life were held on July 10 (for Morrison) and July 11 (for Harwood) featuring the IAFF Pipes & Drums and Honor Guard. On July 15, 2025, Tysdal was transferred from Kootenai Health to a specialized spinal-recovery facility in Colorado. On August 28, 2025, the fire department shared a further update saying Tysdal had been shot in the back, collapsing his left lung, damaging his clavicle, shattering several ribs and causing spinal swelling; he remained at a specialty hospital in Colorado. The department said he was still unable to move his legs but that his wound, clavicle, lungs and arm strength were "getting better and better each day", and relayed thanks from his family for nationwide support. Doctors had said in July that leg movement could return as swelling subsides. == Aftermath ==

A temporary no-fly zone for unauthorised aircraft and drones was declared over Canfield Mountain within hours of the ambush. More than 300 law-enforcement officers—local, state and federal—were ultimately mobilized for the response and evidence-recovery effort. Specialists from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stayed on scene overnight to document ballistics evidence, while the Idaho Department of Lands resumed suppression once the mountain was declared safe. A second, larger procession was scheduled for the morning of July 1 to return Harwood and Morrison from the Spokane County Medical Examiner to Coeur d'Alene; the motorcade was set to depart at 10:00 a.m., travel eastbound on I-90 and enter the city via Sherman Avenue. In a statement, he said: "All our public safety officers, especially our firefighters, bravely confront danger on a daily basis but we have never seen a heinous act of violence like this on our firefighters before. This is not Idaho. This indescribable loss is felt deeply by all those in the firefighting community and beyond." During debate on an unrelated spending bill, Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch led a moment of silence in the U.S. Senate, while the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) called the ambush "a heinous act of violence" and dispatched peer-support teams to Coeur d'Alene. Local churches opened for counseling sessions, and regional critical-incident stress-management teams offered free debriefings to first-responder agencies. Community members also launched several crowd-funding pages to help the families of the slain and injured firefighters. == Perpetrator ==

A day after the shooting, authorities identified the gunman as Wess Val Roley (May 1, 2005 – June 29, 2025), a California native who had recently been living in Idaho. Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris said Roley appeared to have shot himself with a shotgun recovered beside his body. Former classmates at North Phoenix Preparatory Academy told USA Today that he was "obsessed with guns" and frequently discussed politics, voicing strong support for Donald Trump; several also said he drew swastikas and firearms in notebooks, which they viewed as attempts to appear "edgy". Roley left school midway through his sophomore year to join his father's tree-trimming business in Idaho, and his grandfather said he "wanted to be a fireman ... working in the forest" and "idolized firefighters". In the year before the attack, friends noted increasingly erratic behavior. A former roommate in Sandpoint, Idaho, TJ Franks, said Roley shaved his head, barricaded a bathroom door with a chair, and often walked around partially clothed. Franks added that while Roley lived with him, he collected knives and swords but no guns. == Investigation ==

Investigators have not identified a motive. == Responses ==

Law-enforcement and federal agencies More than a dozen public-safety agencies converged on Canfield Mountain within the first two hours of the incident. • The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office served as incident command, supported by the Idaho State Police, the Coeur d'Alene Police Department and neighbouring police and sheriff's offices from Spokane, Shoshone, and Bonner counties. • Air support included a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil helicopter equipped with FLIR, two Spokane County Sheriff's helicopters and at least one armoured rescue vehicle from the region's multijurisdictional SWAT team. • At a June 30 briefing, Kootenai County Fire & Rescue Chief Christopher Way said local police would accompany fire and EMS crews on every call "for at least the next several days", to bolster responder safety. No structures were damaged and no evacuations were required. Political and organizational reactions Governor Brad Little described the ambush as an "evil attack on the people who dedicate their lives to protecting and serving our communities" and activated the state emergency operations centre to coordinate wildfire and investigative resources. The IAFF dispatched a peer-support team to Coeur d'Alene. == See also ==