Idaho suspect Wess Roley’s dad allegedly made disturbing threats against family during divorce
By Alex Oliveira
The father of Idaho gunman Wess Roley once allegedly threatened to start a fire and shoot his family with a sniper rifle — eerily echoing the deadly crime his son carried out Sunday.
Roley’s dad “threatened to sit outside my house with a sniper rifle or burn my house down,” the boy’s terrified mother wrote in 2015 divorce papers obtained by CNN.
On Sunday, Roley, 20, set a blaze in the woods of Canfield Mountain near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — then opened fire from a concealed position on responding firefighters, killing two and critically wounding a third.
Mugshot of Wess Roley, the Idaho sniper.
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Wess Roley was identified as the Idaho sniper suspect Monday.
The young man — who previously lived in Arizona and ran track in high school — was later found dead nearby from a gunshot wound.
The young man who ambushed the smoke-eaters always “wanted to be a fireman,’’ his grandfather told the outlet.
“He wanted to be a fireman — he was doing tree work, and he wanted to be a fireman in the forest,” the grandfather, Dale Roley, told CNN. “As far as I know, he was actually pursuing it.
Smoke rising from a fire in the hills near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
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Smoke seen rising from the fire in the hills near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
AP
“It wasn’t like he was a loner,” the grandfather added, explaining that Roley had a supportive family and friends.
He said the pair usually spoke about once a week but that they hadn’t talked in about a month because Roley had lost his phone.
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About a decade earlier, during his parents’ messy divorce — which unfolded when Roley was 10 years old – a protective order barring his father from contacting his family was granted to his mother.
Police officers in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho responding to a fire.
The attack killed two firefighters and critically wounded a third.
REUTERS
The mom said in court papers at the time that the father also shoved her to the ground and then “punched several holes in the walls.”
The father denied the claims of violence, insisting “I am not a danger to my son or anyone else” and that she “did not tell the truth in her statement,” documents showed.
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