The officials identified the sniper who was found dead after a fire began and fatally fired with two reacting firefighters.
The sniper was identified as Wes Raleley, 20 -year -old, sheriff of Cototaya Bob Norris County confirmed at a press conference on Monday afternoon. Raley was accused of igniting fire in the early afternoon of June 29 and then fired two first responses who arrived to expose him.
A third firefighter was injured in the shooting, Norris said at a press conference.
“It was a complete ambush,” he told reporters. “These firefighters had no chance.”
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Later, the body of the sniper was found on the Kenfield Mountain, a popular destination for tourism and cycling in front of the city of Core D’Ant. The suspect seems to have taken his life, Norris said.
The body and firearms were found using the location of the mobile phone, Norris said. It is unclear how the suspect died, but Norris said he was involved in a shootout with reacting law enforcement officers.
The suspect was “transitional” with the history of “insignificant” running with police
Sheriff Norris shared new details at a press conference on June 30 about the life of the suspect in the year leading to the ambush outside Coor d’Ant.
The suspect seems to have lived in his car and has had five participations with local law enforcement authorities, which are “very, very insignificant in nature,” Norris said: “He collaborates with everyone.”
His meetings with the police were mostly related to a violation, Norris said. At one point, it seems that the suspect was living from a restaurant, Norris said, and police had to ask him to leave. The law enforcement agencies also carried out at least one verification of the suspect’s well -being.
He seems to live from his car during the shooting, Norris said, adding that he was full of materials. Investigators have not yet invented what is in the car that has been pushed on the embankment so that the suspect does not escape.
Authorities have not found a manifesto and are still looking for a motive, as well as what attracted him to Coeur d’Alene.
“We know that he was transitional here. We know that he lived here for the best part of 2024, but with regard to how he got here, why he chose this place, we do not know,” Norris told reporters. “Maybe we find more after we make a vehicle inventory.”
Wanted to be a firefighter at one point
According to the suspect, “at one point wanted to be a firefighter,” according to Norris.
“We do not know if there is a connection between this desire and what happened,” the sheriff told reporters.
Investigators have found a flint starter of the suspect that they believe that it has begun the fire. The blaze has grown to 26 acres of size, Norris said.
The suspect’s grandfather also told NBC News that his grandson wanted to be a firefighter.
Came from “arbor family” seems to have fired from a tree
The suspected shooter comes from what sheriff Norris described as “arbor family.”
“We cannot find any evidence that he had survival training, but from what we understand, he grew up in a family of arbourist and they climbed trees,” Norris told a press conference at 2 pm on June 30.
“We had numerous reports that he was shooting from a tree.”
Who is Wes Raleley, the suspected of the murders of a sniper in Idaho?
The records show that Roley, recently, has lived in Phoenix, but seems to have a family in Idaho, about an hour’s car from the scene of the shooting on June 29.
The Cottenay County Sheriff’s service did not release a possible motive for the shooting.
A relative of the suspect was shocked by the attack on firefighters. “He loved firefighters,” suspected grandfather Dale Raleley told NBC News. “It didn’t make sense that he fired firefighters. Maybe he had been rejected or something.”
Dale Raleley could not be immediately reached for comment from USA Today. The suspect briefly lived in his grandfather’s home in Oklahoma before moving to Idaho, according to NBC.
What happened during the Kenfield Mountain attack?
At 13:21 local time, an unidentified call was reported to a fire on the east side of Mount Kenfield, Norris said. The call is not thought to be a weapon.
The firefighters responded to the conversation and at 2:00 pm firefighters were broadcasting that there were shots. Employees arrived at the scene and exchanged firing suspects, Norris said.
After the shooting, the investigators found a signal for a mobile phone on the Kenfield Mountain, which did not move from 15:16.
What do we know about firefighters?
Authorities have not publicly identified firefighters killed and injured in the attack.
One of the firefighters killed worked in fire and rescue Kootenai County, and the other worked for the Coeur D’Anene Fire Service. The wounded firefighter also works for the Coeur d’Alene department.
Contribution: John Bacon, Michael Loria and Christopher Cannes, USA today
This article originally appeared in USA Today: Suspect of shooting in Idaho, which plant 2 identified firefighters