Politics
NEW: ‘Chilling Coincidence’ Uncovered In Idaho Shooting
Internet sleuths are working in parallel with state and federal authorities to piece together the motives of Wess Roley, the deceased 20-year-old believed to be the culprit behind Sunday’s deadly shooting in northern Idaho.
The date, June 29, marks the 24th anniversary of another fiery day in the region’s history, noted amateur investigators who called the connection a “chilling coincidence.”
In 2001, local fire departments lit up a former compound of the Aryan Nation, a white supremacist organization that is known to harbor strong ties to northern Idaho, according to federal law enforcement. The fire served as a training exercise, but its flames loomed large over the events of Sunday.
Authorities say Roley deliberately set a brushfire that triggered responses from firefighters in the surrounding towns. When they arrived, he allegedly opened fire with a “modern, high-power” sniper rifle, forcing the smoke-eaters to retreat while a SWAT team was called in for backup.
Some are suggesting that Roley may have been motivated by the burning of the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake, just 7 miles from where the shooting took place in Coeur d’Alene.
Richard Butler, who founded the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations and led it until his death in 2004, was forced to sell the Hayden Lake property after losing a $6.3 million lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group’s security personnel had fired their guns at a Native American woman, Victoria Keenan, after she and her son stopped their vehicle outside the building.
Keenan bought the building for $95,000 and eventually sold it to a local philanthropist, who allowed the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department to burn it down as part of its training exercise.
Conspiracy theorists are now suggesting that Roley’s actions may have been motivated by a fire first set to extinguish the memory of white supremacy in northern Idaho.
One user posted pictures from June 29, 2001, and June 29, 2025, both of which showed eerily similar plumes of smoke rising above the forestland.
“I do not think it is a coincidence that on this date in 2001, firefighters in Coeur d’Alene burned down the Aryan Nation founder’s compound in a training exercise after he lost the property in a federal bankruptcy sale. The tragic current events are unfolding nearby,” a user wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
Another suggested Roley may have been a part of “Richard Butler ppl laying stake. His compound was close by.”
A third X user wrote, “Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, is the home of the Aryan Nation. Richard Butler made his base there, and despite being pushed out, they have returned in the last few years.”
So far, there have been no definitive connections between the shooter and a motive, the NY Post reports.
Ongoing activity of the Aryan Nations is disputed. The gang was officially declared inactive following Butler’s death, but its affiliation continues to draw from white prisoners and disaffected individuals across the U.S.
Others, such as the National Socialist Club, have sprung up to replace the AB. Founded by Chris Hood, the NSC has become an insidious force across New England, hosting pop-up rallies in an effort to reprise some of the anger that made the Aryan Nations a dominant hate group in the 1980s and 90s.
