State of mind of Idaho firefighter shooter is something no one ‘could understand’; expert compares case to Trump assassination attempt

The man investigators say shot and killed two Idaho firefighters near Coeur d’Alene in a brazen ambush started to behave strangely the year leading up to the shooting, his roommate said.

Wess Roley, 20, moved into TJ Franks’ Sandpoint apartment last year. Franks told The Spokesman-Review he didn’t initially believe his roommate was the one who started the fire on Canfield Mountain and later shot and killed 52-year-old John Morrison and 42-year-old Frank Harwood, two local battalion chiefs. A third firefighter, David Tysdal, was also shot and wounded.

“I couldn’t tell you why firefighters,” Franks wrote in a message. “It makes me so sad because they protect us from fires and save lives, not take them.”

The roommates met through a tree service company – Roley was working there at the time, and Franks was interested in applying. They chatted, and Roley told him he wanted to go into the logging business. Because Franks knew some local loggers, he thought he could help. Roley eventually moved in with Franks, he said.

“He told me he was living in his van and I needed some help with rent, so I offered,” Franks said.

Toward the end of Roley’s time living there, “there were signs” things weren’t going well, Franks said. Roley had shaved his head, talked less, barricaded the bathroom door with a chair and repeatedly walked around with little clothing on.

“I tried to have to have sit-downs with him to see if he would start picking up after himself and it just made him frustrated,” the roommate said.

Officials say Roley engaged in a shootout with police June 29 after the killing of two firefighters. Law enforcement, after a few hours of searching, located Roley’s body with a shotgun underneath him. He died by suicide, according to Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris. They have yet to determine a motive for the deadly ambush.

Roley had acquired knives and swords, but no guns, Franks said.

The observations of Roley’s roommate are just one piece of what investigators will look at to try to answer the questions remaining following the double homicide: “Why?” said Joe Giacalone, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

“You always look for that third piece,” he said, after means and opportunity, “the motive.”

“It’s always an important aspect of the investigation,” he said. “You want to see if there was an opportunity if they could have prevented it.”

Following a number of school shootings throughout the U.S., investigators often later found that shooters had previous contact with law enforcement.

“You always want to prevent the next one,” Giacolone said. “You want to stop a copy cat.”

Attorney Justin Whittenton, of Scottsdale, Arizona, is representing Roley’s mother and family in Arizona. He indicated earlier this week that the family was cooperating with investigators.

“At this time, we, the family of Wess Roley would like to offer our most heartfelt condolences to the families of those whose lives were taken and to the community of Coeur d’Alene at large,” the statement reads. “There are no words that can suffice for this tragedy and the infinite losses suffered by those affected by this shooting. We do not understand why this happened or how this came about.”

In addition to talking to friends and relatives, Giacalone said investigators likely are looking at anything Roley posted to social media for clues as to his state of mind.

“They will run to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Those are the easy ones,” he said. “But there are other opportunities out there. Sometimes there are games and online journals, where they can post things.

“There is some information in the dark web and sites that you and I have never heard of.”

Giacalone did some of that work in the 20 years, from 1992 to 2012, when he worked for the New York Police Department. He was a sergeant in the detective squad.

For a time, Giacalone said he helped to supervise the Bronx Cold Case Squad. It had about 8,000 open cases at the time dating back to 1992.

He now mostly teaches criminal investigative classes at John Jay College.

One thing that could hamper the Kootenai County Sheriff’s investigation is Roley’s age, Giacalone said. Roleymay not have had time to build enough of a physical or online persona to help investigators.

The closest parallel case, Giacalone said, was the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Authorities immediately identified Thomas Mathew Crooks, 20.

“What’s going on with 20-year-old males that make them want to do this? Or a school shooting,” he said. “Specifically targeting firemen who are unarmed and they are walking into a situation where they think they are trying to help somebody. That’s another layer.”

That shooting nicked Trump, but it critically injured two people and killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, who reportedly was shot while shielding his wife and family.

Comperatore, of Butler, Pennsylvania, was an engineer. He was also a volunteer firefighter.

“We haven’t heard anything on that case,” Giacalone said of the Crooks investigation. “He almost assassinated a presidential candidate. We haven’t even heard anything from the administration he tried to kill, which is extremely odd. I just don’t think the answers are there.”

The Spokane and Coeur d’Alene communities may eventually find the same problem explaining why, as investigators allege, Roley ambushed firefighters on Canfield Mountain.

“It’s frustrating. It’s something the public needs to know,” Giacalone said.

The killings in Coeur d’Alene, assassination attempts and school shootings damage not just those people who are involved, he said.

“It affects the entire community. Firefighters have a job of saving people,” Giacalone said. “I understand anger towards the police, but not the fire department. I don’t think I could understand that. I don’t think anybody could.”