A bystander named Jordan Salinas has been hailed as a “hero” in the United States after confronting an armed man at a shopping center in Idaho on Saturday. At least three people were killed and several others wounded in the shooting. The suspect, Chad Williams, 24, who was later found dead close to the scene, allegedly opened fire at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday, Twin Falls police chief Matthew Hicks praised an off-duty officer and “a citizen” who fired at the suspect. “We believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties,” he said. While police have not officially named the citizen, viral videos have identified Salinas as the said bystander. He later recounted how he confronted Williams to the Idaho Statesman newspaper.
Salinas, a 35-year-old healthcare worker from Kimberly, Idaho, had planned to go horse riding in Hagerman with his girlfriend but first stopped for lunch at the In-N-Out Burger restaurant off Blue Lakes Boulevard in Twin Falls at about 2:30 pm local time. The scene soon turned chaotic, with people fleeing. Salinas initially thought a kitchen fire had occurred but then heard the “pop-pop-pop” sound of gunfire and realized a shooting was taking place. He ran towards the sound in an “automatic” and “mechanical” response.
Salinas told the Idaho Statesman that he had been training to handle firearms following a 2021 shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall that killed two people. He trained at weekends in the desert outside Eden but had never pointed his gun at “so much as an animal” before Saturday. He followed a four-step approach he had practiced for years – “observe, orient, decide, act” – to confront the attacker. “He did not like it when bullets started firing both ways,” he said, adding that he felt “no fear” before, during, or after firing. “There’s a task that needs to be done, and we’re the ones who need to do it,” he added.
On social media, his actions have been praised, with many X users calling him a hero. In a statement on his Facebook page late Sunday, Salinas wrote that the past 24 hours had been “overwhelming.” He thanked his family, friends, and everyone who reached out with messages, prayers, and support, saying he had seen their messages and they meant more than he could put into words. He added that he would share a more complete account of what happened in the coming days.
Little information is available about the attacker so far. One witness, Lane Koehn, said Williams was armed with an AR-style rifle. Koehn told NBC News he watched the attacker take aim at a car in front of him before moving through the drive-through towards his own car. “I could tell he was trying to figure out where to go, and somebody in the drive-through line with a handgun was shooting at him,” Koehn said. He described the attacker as “panicked” and said the armed bystander prevented the attacker from firing at more people.
Police are working to determine a possible motive for the attack, and the suspect’s family is cooperating with authorities. The names of the victims have not yet been released, but one of those killed was an employee at the restaurant. In-N-Out owner and president Lynsi Snyder expressed grief in a statement, saying, “My heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I’ve shed. We lost one of our beautiful Associates tonight.” Of the seven people injured, two were treated and discharged, three were in stable condition, and two remained in critical condition. The FBI has encouraged the public to share videos or images related to the incident with law enforcement.
Source: www.aljazeera.com