It happened on a Sunday. June 29, 2025, started out as just another hot, dry afternoon in North Idaho, the kind where everyone keeps a nervous eye on the brush. But what unfolded on the western slope of Canfield Mountain wasn't a natural disaster. It was a "total ambush," according to Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris. At the center of this nightmare was Wess Roley, a 20-year-old with a fixation on the very people he would eventually target.
People are still trying to wrap their heads around the "why." Why would a young man, someone who reportedly idolized firefighters and even tried to join their ranks just weeks prior, lure them into a "kill zone"?
The Setup: Fire as a Weapon
Basically, the whole thing was a trap. Investigators later determined that Roley used a flint starter and gasoline to intentionally ignite the brush. He wasn't just some kid playing with matches; he was a hunter. He knew that in a timber-heavy area like Coeur d'Alene, a plume of smoke is an immediate summons for help.
When the first crews arrived around 1:50 p.m., they found Roley standing by his black Ford Ranger. He had parked it right in front of a gate that the fire trucks needed to pass through. Honestly, the initial interaction was mundane—and that’s the part that sticks with you. Firefighters asked him to move his truck. There was a brief, confrontational exchange. Then, as Engineer David Tysdal walked past him to unlock the gate, Roley opened fire.
He didn't use a sniper rifle from a mile away. He used a 12-gauge Mossberg pump-action shotgun loaded with rifled slugs.
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The carnage was immediate and localized. Battalion Chief Frank Harwood and Battalion Chief John Morrison were killed. Tysdal was critically wounded, shot in the back. The sheer brazenness of the attack is what still haunts the community. Roley had even used his arborist skills—climbing a tree to get an elevated line of fire on the men who had come to save the mountain.
Who Was Wess Roley?
We’ve all seen the headlines that try to paint a simple picture of a "lone wolf," but Roley’s background is a messy tangle of rejection and untreated struggle. He was a California native who had bounced between Arizona and Idaho. His grandfather, Dale Roley, later told reporters that Wess "wanted to be a fireman" and "idolized" them.
But there was a dark flip side.
- Job Rejection: In May 2025, Roley walked into a Coeur d'Alene fire station and asked for a job. He expected to start that very day. When he was told there was a process—testing, training, applications—he reportedly left in a state of quiet, simmering anger.
- Military Failure: He tried to enlist in the U.S. Army twice. He failed to follow through on appointments and was eventually disqualified.
- Mental Health: Family members noted he had been diagnosed with ADHD as a child but never received treatment. In the months leading up to the shooting, his behavior turned "erratic." He was living out of his truck, shaving his head, and barricading doors.
After the shooting, a SWAT team used cell phone tracking to find him. By 7:40 p.m., they found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the dense timber. Nearby, they found a note to his father. "Tomorrow, I shall go to battle," it read. He signed it with symbols associated with extremist ideologies, including an Othala rune.
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The Sean Johnson Connection: Clearing the Confusion
When a tragedy like the Idaho shooting goes viral, the internet does what it does best: it creates a mess of misinformation. Shortly after Wess Roley's name hit the news, social media began buzzing about a "34-year-old Sean Johnson."
You've probably seen the posts. Some people tried to link the two, or claimed that a Sean Johnson was a co-conspirator.
Let's be clear: there is no evidence linking Wess Roley to a Sean Johnson in the context of the Canfield Mountain shooting. So, where did the name come from? Most likely, it was a collision of news cycles. Around the same time, a 33-year-old (often cited as 34 in subsequent reports) named Sean Michael-Emmrich Johnson was making headlines in South Carolina for a completely unrelated, viral incident on Sullivan's Island. That Sean Johnson was caught on video harassing Hispanic men and was later charged with kidnapping and impersonating a law enforcement officer.
In the chaotic vacuum of a breaking news event, AI chatbots and "citizen journalists" on X (formerly Twitter) often mash names together. Some AI tools even hallucinated that Roley had a criminal record involving a Sean Johnson. PolitiFact and local law enforcement have since debunked these claims. Roley acted alone. The Sean Johnson stories are a separate, though also disturbing, chapter of 2025's news landscape.
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The Aftermath and Lessons Learned
The Idaho community is still reeling. David Tysdal, the surviving engineer, faced a brutal recovery in a Colorado specialty hospital, dealing with a collapsed lung and spinal swelling.
What can we actually take away from this? Honestly, it’s a grim reminder of the "ambush" threat that first responders now face. We often think of the fire as the enemy, but for the crews on Canfield Mountain, the fire was just the bait.
Actionable Insights for Community Safety
If you live in a high-risk fire area or want to support first responders, here is how the landscape has changed:
- Situational Awareness for Responders: Many departments are now revising "staging" protocols. If a fire is reported in a remote area with suspicious circumstances, police are often being dispatched alongside fire crews to "clear" the scene before any water is dropped.
- Mental Health Intervention: The Roley case highlights the "rejection sensitive dysphoria" that can occur in untreated individuals. If someone in your circle is showing signs of extreme fixation followed by sudden, aggressive withdrawal after a professional rejection, it’s a massive red flag.
- Vetting Information: Don't trust the first name you see on social media during a crisis. The confusion between Roley and various "Sean Johnsons" caused unnecessary panic and distracted from the actual investigation. Always check for official sheriff's office briefings.
The Canfield Mountain shooting wasn't just a crime; it was a failure of multiple systems—military recruitment, mental health care, and professional gatekeeping—to catch a young man before he decided that "battle" was his only option.
Stay vigilant, and keep an eye on your neighbors. Sometimes the smoke isn't the biggest threat in the woods.