Wess Roley, the 20-year-old suspect in the Idaho fire shooting

The suspect whom police believe killed two firefighters Sunday after igniting a brush fire in Idaho with a flint fire starter, wanted to pursue a career as a firefighter himself, his grandfather told CNN.

Wess Roley, 20, was identified by a law enforcement official as the suspect in the shooting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which left two firefighters responding to the blaze dead and injured a third. Authorities said Roley was found dead at the scene, and appears to have shot himself.

Roley’s grandfather, Dale Roley, told CNN his grandson came from a family of arborists and had been working in the tree service industry while trying to figure out his career path.

Police say Wess Roley opened fire on the first responders from a tree, citing extensive experience climbing with his family. His motive remains unknown and no manifesto has been found.

“He wanted to be a fireman – he was doing tree work and he wanted to be a fireman in the forest,” Dale Roley said. “As far as I know, he was actually pursuing it.”

Wess Roley owned a shotgun and a long rifle, his grandfather said. Investigators are confident that a shotgun was used in the Sunday attack, but have stopped short of ruling out additional firearms.

Dale Roley said he typically spoke with his grandson on a weekly basis, but they hadn’t spoken in the last month because Wess Roley had lost his phone. He said the suspect had loving family and friends, and he vacationed in Hawaii with his mother last year, according to social media posts.

Officials said it appeared Wess Roley was living out of his vehicle, which remains on the scene and has not been inventoried.

“It wasn’t like he was a loner,” Dale Roley told CNN. “We had no reason to suspect that he would be involved in something like this.” He said he was holding out hope that his grandson wasn’t actually the shooter.

Roley previously lived in California, Arizona and Idaho, authorities said. A running website said that he ran track at a high school in Arizona and was a member of the school’s class of 2024.

Two former Arizona classmates of Roley’s painted a picture of a struggling student who occasionally lashed out in anger. He could be friendly at times, they said, but was seclusive from his peers.

A third former classmate described Roley as sometimes “verbally aggressive,” but echoed that he had the means to be friendly and fun.

“He would make us laugh so hard,” the classmate said. They would play with airsoft guns and video games, but sometimes “it was difficult to play with him… you would take him in doses.”

Wess Roley 

From social media

Court documents show that Roley had a tumultuous family life growing up. His mother filed for divorce in September 2015, when her son was 10 years old, and wrote in court documents that her husband had threatened her, pushed her to the ground, and “punched several holes in the walls.”

“He threatened to sit outside my house with a sniper rifle or burn my house down,” she wrote.

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