Kootenai County, Idaho, Sheriff Bob Norris confirmed in a presser Monday that the 20-year-old man who allegedly shot and killed two firefighters Sunday used a shotgun.
“It appears right now we have a shotgun that was used, but we’re still processing the scene,” Norris said,
NBC News reported Norris explaining that when the 20-year-old’s body was found on the mountain, a firearm was found nearby as well as “some rifled slugs.” (Rifled slugs are heavy, single projectiles which are rifled to make up for the lack of rifling in a smooth-bore shotgun. They allow shotgun hunters to use their firearms in a rifle-like fashion during hunting season.)
Norris pointed out that a rifled slug is “generally a one-ounce piece of metal.”
The 20-year-old allegedly “opened fire on the first responders from a tree,” CNN noted.
Law enforcement personnel exchanged gunfire with the young man late Sunday afternoon/Sunday evening, and there was initially some question as to whether he was killed as a result of that exchange or whether he killed himself. On Monday, Norris confirmed the suspect killed himself.
Also on Monday, Breitbart News reported that the 20-year-old’s grandfather said his grandson wanted to become a firefighter.
The grandfather, Dale Roley, told CNN, “He wanted to be a fireman — he was doing tree work and he wanted to be a fireman in the forest. As far as I know, he was actually pursuing it.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
