New details have surfaced about the troubled family history of Wess Roley, the 20-year-old identified as the suspect in the fatal shooting of two firefighters in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Court documents obtained by CNN reveal that Roley’s mother, Heather Lynn Cuchiara, sought an order of protection against his father, Jason Roley, in 2015. In her filing, she accused her then-husband of abuse, stating he 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 in the filing.
A judge granted the protective order, barring Jason Roley from contacting his wife or their son. The order was later amended to remove the son after Jason claimed in a court filing that he posed no danger and that Heather “did not tell the truth in her statement.”
The couple divorced in November 2015, when Wess was 10 years old. His mother was granted primary custody.
Wess spent most of his adolescence living with his mother in Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended high school. Last summer, he moved to Idaho to be closer to his father. According to his grandfather, Dale Roley, Wess had been working in the tree service industry and hoped to become a firefighter.
“He wanted to be a fireman – he was doing tree work and he wanted to be a fireman in the forest,” his grandfather Dale Roley told CNN. “As far as I know, he was actually pursuing it.”
Also Read: ‘Wess Roley loved firefighters, wanted to be one’: Idaho shooter’s grandfather reveals shocking details
Jason Roley
Screenshots circulating on social media from a Facebook account believed to belong to Jason Roley identify him as a former Army cavalry scout and a member of the Hooligans outlaw biker club. Unverified reports suggest he owns property on Canfield Mountain near Coeur d’Alene, which is the site of Sunday’s deadly ambush.
Heather Lynn Kuuipo Cuchiara
A Facebook account linked to Heather Lynn Kuuipo Cuchiara shows recent photos from a trip to Washington, D.C., where she posed in front of the White House wearing a MAGA hat alongside her current partner. Other photos show her vacationing in Hawaii with her son last year. In a May post, she wished Wess a happy 20th birthday, writing: “So proud of the man you’ve become.”
