NEUTRALIZED: Gunman Ambushed Idaho Firefighters Responding To Wildfire… Kills Two
They run toward the danger to help others... and some coward exploited that fact
It’s about as craven an act as one can imagine. Laying in wait to shoot at emergency personnel responding to a legitimate crisis. But that is exactly the scenario that faced Idaho over the weekend.
Firemen were rushing in to face a dangerous, out of control brushfire. The last thing on their minds was scanning the scene for potential scumbags taking potshots at them while they worked.
Unfortunately for them, they faced something far more dangerous than the unpredictable devouring maw of flame. They faced armed human malice.
Early reporting of the scene looked like this:
WE NEED TO PRAY!!!
A gunman in Idaho has killed two firefighters. He is reportedly STILL actively firing…
HOW EVIL DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO SHOOT AT FIREFIGHTERS!!!
— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) June 30, 2025
You can hear the anguish in his voice as he brings us up to speed on what’s happening:
“As soon as someone has a clear shot I encourage them to take that shot and neutralize the threat.” – Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris#Idaho #CoeurDAlene pic.twitter.com/FZWRHJpQQV
— Jason Krump (@JasonKrump) June 29, 2025
The shooter is now no longer with us.
The passive nature of the language in that announcement make it sound like the shooter took himself out. Federal authorities in helicopters traced the phone signal to the spot where he was found.
The three firefighters — two of whom died and one who remains hospitalized — appear to be the only victims of the shooting, Sheriff Bob Norris said.
One of the slain firefighters worked for the Coeur D’Alene Fire Department, and the other was employed by Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, Norris said at a news conference tonight. Their names were not immediately released.
“This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance,” Norris said. —NBC
While it can hardly be said that 3 people being shot — two of them fatally — can be seen in any sense as ‘good’ news, there may be some comfort in knowing that earlier reports of a much larger number of victims, including other firefighters and policemen were proven untrue.
Hardly surprising in the ‘fog of war’ confusion surrounding such events, especially in the early going.
Here’s something you won’t see in the news reports to show just how serious things were there:
