(CNN) — The scene at the brand new In-N-Out in Twin Falls, Idaho, Saturday afternoon was like any of the burger chain’s locations across the country: workers clad in their unmistakable red aprons and branded paper hats dished French fries and welcomed customers to the beloved restaurant.
Then a young man walked in with a gun and opened fire.
Customers screamed, diving from their seats. Some barricaded themselves in the restrooms. Workers scrambled to get out the front door, spilling onto the sidewalk of a busy street.
Outside, in an ordinary parking lot filled with patrons charging their electric cars or waiting in the drive-thru line, a routine weekend afternoon gave way to the kind of chaos that has become tragically familiar across the country: the sudden crack of gunfire, the scramble for safety and the realization that any place can become the backdrop of trauma and tragedy.
Three people were killed and seven others were injured in Saturday’s shooting before the gunman, 24-year-old Chad Williams, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said investigators are confident Williams acted alone.
An off-duty state trooper and a civilian returned gunfire during the attack, “heroic actions” police believe helped drive the gunman away from the scene and prevented additional deaths and injuries, he added.
“These people are true heroes in our community, and their actions diverted the shooter and no doubt saved many lives,” Twin Falls County Sheriff Jack Johnson said.
In-N-Out’s highly anticipated Twin Falls location had been open only a week before it turned into another painful chapter in America’s epidemic of gun violence. It joins a growing list of shootings this summer, including at a food festival, parades and places of worship, that unfolded in everyday spaces.
The shooting in Idaho is one of at least 277 mass shootings in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are shot.
Among the victims killed is an In-N-Out employee, company owner and president Lynsi Snyder said in a statement.
The shooter, she said, “took the precious lives of our Associate and Customers, innocent people who never saw it coming.”
“My heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I’ve shed,” Snyder wrote in a statement on Instagram.
A lunch break turned into a fight for survival
Twin Falls’ 911 dispatchers could hear screaming in the background as they fielded calls from people reporting gunshots just before 2:30 p.m. local time, Hicks, the police chief, said.
Saturday’s shooting unfolded in one of Twin Falls’ busiest commercial areas, a stretch of the city’s north side filled with hotels, national retailers and restaurants that serve residents and travelers alike. Located approximately 130 miles southeast of Boise, Twin Falls is a regional hub for much of southern Idaho.
Video captured from a passing vehicle shows an individual, who law enforcement says is not the suspect in the deadly shooting, shooting a gun outside the restaurant.
Twin Falls Police Lt. Steven Gassert confirmed to CNN on Sunday that the man in the video is not the suspect.
In the video, a man is seen standing outside the restaurant, pointing a gun and firing; a gunshot appears to ring out as the weapon recoils. The man then crouches and jumps into nearby bushes before the person recording drives away.
Police have not identified the two individuals who fired back at the shooter. Jordan Salinas, a 35-year-old healthcare worker, identified himself as one of the two people who fired toward the gunman, telling the Idaho Statesman that it was an “automatic” response.
Salinas said he was with his girlfriend stopping for lunch when the shooting erupted, prompting him to reach for his semi-automatic pistol. As a caregiver for his brother, who uses a wheelchair, Salinas has been practicing for years, taking his training more seriously after the 2021 Boise Towne Square shooting, which killed two people and injured several more, he told the Statesman.
Salinas said he ran from his car toward the shooting and, when he saw the gunman firing toward cars, he pulled the trigger. “He did not like it when bullets started firing both ways,” Salinas said of the shooter.
Taxi driver Terry Dudley, who had stopped in between customer rides to charge his Tesla at the new In-N-Out, heard the gunshots himself.
Dudley was sitting inside the car when the gunman opened fire, striking him twice in the back, his friend and coworker James Crow told CNN.
Bleeding and panicked, Dudley called Crow and told him he had been shot. The two men have been friends for 10 years, Crow said. They rarely let a day pass without talking, sharing a bond through one of Dudley’s favorite hobbies — motorcycling — and eventually becoming business partners through Crow’s taxi company.
“He’s a larger-than-life kind of guy, just a big personality,” Crow said. “He’s boisterous, but he’s still like a very gentle soul, very kind, compassionate, loves to laugh. He wants to enjoy life, he’s tenacious, charismatic.”
Micheal Dudley had been sleeping after working a long overnight bartending shift when he woke up to an urgent phone call: His father had been shot.
Dudley was widowed years ago and is a single father of four children, including Micheal, who told CNN his father suffered severe injuries and remains intubated after being emergency airlifted to a hospital.
Crow started a GoFundMe to help cover Dudley’s medical costs and the long road of recovery ahead.
‘I never thought I would see this here’
Dominic Gonzales was sitting in a car with his two younger brothers, waiting for his sister to come back from ordering their food, when he heard the first shots.
“We were just sitting there, I was playing on my phone when I heard a couple pops and I look up and I see a gentleman walking from a white vehicle to another vehicle with a pistol in his hand,” Gonzales told CNN affiliate KMVT. The man fired a shot at a vehicle, he said.
“I told my two brothers to duck down,” Gonzales said. He kept glancing up to track where the gunman was, he said, then threw himself across the front of the car — “just to take up space so if anything did come flying I was there.”
His sister, Jaylyn Sanchez, had just ordered food and stepped into the restroom when the gunfire began. As people screamed and cried, others crowded into the restroom beside her, and they tried to barricade the door. When they were told it was safe, she ran out through the drive-thru line — and directly into the shooter’s path.
“As I was running I faced the shooter head on and he pointed the gun at me,” Sanchez said. “I ducked behind a white car just to have some sort of coverage.” She said she saw a pistol resting on a gun case she believed belonged to the shooter.
“I didn’t have anything to protect myself so I grabbed the gun and I pulled it back,” she said. “It was jammed so I just felt helpless. I saw the truck in front of me so I got in the car and left.”
Authorities have not released the identities of those killed or injured, saying not all of their families had been notified. Hicks said investigators are withholding additional details because releasing them could “compromise our investigation.”
The FBI has established a digital media tip line and is urging members of the public with information to submit any videos, photos or audio that captured the shooting.
For both Micheal Dudley and Crow, the shooting is difficult to comprehend.
In a place they view as peaceful and removed from the violence that often dominates headlines, they struggled to understand how something so horrific could happen in their city.
“I never thought I would see this here,” Crow said.
Dudley agrees.
“I was kind of in shock that it happened because while you hear about the occasional thing on the news, it all seems kind far away,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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