How Mormon is the Idaho Firefighter Ambush?
It's more than just the timing. The connections between Mormonism, law enforcement, organized crime, and key figures in America’s White supremacist movement.
A deadly ambush that killed two firefighters and seriously injured a third on Canfield Mountain has shaken the small community near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The suspect, Wess Roley, allegedly set the blaze before opening fire on first responders. He was later “found dead” near his weapon, but he was supposedly the lone gunman. What makes this incident even more interesting is the date: the attack occurred exactly 24 years after local firefighters burned down the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake during a training exercise.
The Aryan Nations compound was once ground zero for organized White supremacy in the U.S. Founded by Richard Butler, the site also had ties to Robert "Bob" Mathews, leader of the domestic terror group The Order, and a member of the LDS Church.
In the 1970s, Mathew’s joined the National Alliance, led by William Pierce, after moving to Washington state where he became a key figure in the far-right militia ecosystem. He would visit Butler and establish ties with the Hayden Lake compound.
No official motive has been confirmed. But given the timing, the actors, and the historical weight, the ambush demands a closer look, not just at what happened, but why it happened.
Who Was Wess Roley—and Who Was He With?
Online speculation has zeroed in on Wess Roley's MAGA family ties, but by the time of the shooting, he had long been estranged from his parents. Instead, he was living in Sandpoint, Idaho, with a man named TJ Franks Jr., whom Roley met while working in the tree service industry. After just a few interactions, he moved into Franks' apartment where they lived together for about six months.
“He seemed good, you know?” Franks told reporters. “He didn’t have much. He said he was living out of his van and working at the tree service.”
But things got strange. He eventually asked Roley to leave in January, after an incident involving his apartment’s interior security cameras.
“He didn’t like the cameras in the house—it really disturbed him,” Franks said. “I’d unplug them when my kids weren’t home. But one night, I forgot. He came in when no one was there and threw up what looked like gang signs toward the camera. That’s when I called the police. I was genuinely worried he might get violent.”
Why did TJ Franks Jr. allow someone he barely knew—not just into his home, but around his children—only to later disable the very security meant to protect them?
Sheriff Bob Norris and the Criminal Mormons
More twists lie with Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris, whose department had at least five run-ins with Wess Roley, despite the fact that he lived in a different county.
Norris’s history is riddled with eyebrow-raising connections, starting with his time in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. That same department harbored white supremacist sheriff gangs like the Lynwood Vikings, which a federal judge labeled as “neo-Nazis.”
Norris rose through the ranks under controversial figures like Paul Tanaka and Lee Baca, both of whom were later convicted on federal charges. His resume includes intelligence training in Israel, raising questions about political favoritism and backdoor promotion deals (especially since he once donated $600 to Tanaka’s mayoral campaign during a known “pay-to-play” scheme).
But here’s where it gets more tangled: Baca, Norris’s longtime mentor, had familial ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), though he wasn’t a member himself.
He was even honored by the Southern California LDS Public Affairs Council in 2013, signaling a long-running alliance between law enforcement and Mormon leaders. In 2017, Baca was sentenced for obstructing an FBI investigation into misconduct in LA County jails. He created a “special reserves” program allowing celebrities and wealthy elites—many with questionable backgrounds—to bypass regulations and receive concealed weapon permits. The program ended after multiple scandals, including participants being indicted for international money laundering and firearms misconduct.
There are deeper questions about criminals within law enforcement protecting these white supremacist groups and unsettling Mormon connections that go far beyond the shooter’s mental breakdown. Especially since the first LDS branch was created in Coeur d’Alene in 1948, and the Hayden Lake Stake was formed with 2,511 members in 1999.
These threads paint a picture of how Sheriff Bob Norris rose through a system riddled with corruption tied to white supremacist gangs, organized crime, and LDS influence. Any investigations that involve white supremacists will need to be double-checked because of his troubling connections to such groups.
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-DeAnna Calderón