Two firefighters ambushed and shot in Idaho

This Sunday, an armed man deliberately started a wildfire in Kootenai County, in a mountainous area of Idaho, and then shot at the firefighters who responded. Two of them died, and another was injured in what the local sheriff described as an “absolute ambush.”

The attack prompted an emergency response and a search involving various security agents, who exchanged gunfire with the armed man while the wildfire burned. Agents later found the body of a suspect on the mountain, with a firearm nearby, County Sheriff Robert Norris stated at a press conference. Preliminary information indicates that the suspect, identified on Monday morning as Wess Roley, acted alone.

One of the fallen firefighters worked for the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department, and the other was part of the Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Department, Norris stated. The victims had been sent to conduct a reconnaissance after receiving a phone call about a fire on Canfield Mountain, on the eastern outskirts of Coeur d’Alene, around 1:21 p.m. About 40 minutes later, the firefighters called for help after two of them were shot.

Gun ownership, widespread in the United States, is protected by the Constitution; however, deaths related to gun violence are frequent: in 2023, 17,927 people were killed by firearms in the country, according to the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.