Jordan Salinas told the Idaho Statesman he pulled up to the In-N-Out Burger off of Blue Lakes Boulevard in Twin Falls around 2:30 p.m. Saturday when he saw people running out of the fast-food restaurant.
The 35-year-old thought it was a kitchen fire, the Statesman said — until he heard the “pop-pop-pop” of gunshots.
‘As soon as some rounds started coming at him, everything changed … all that bravado he had immediately crumbled.’
Salinas added to ABC News that he saw a person aiming a rifle at passing cars: “I peeked around the right-hand side of that sign closest to the road, and that’s where I saw the individual with his rifle pointed at the vehicles.”
Turns out Salinas happened upon a deadly shooting at the fast-food restaurant — which opened for business only last month — that took the lives of three victims and left seven others injured.
Salinas did not run from the danger; instead he ran toward it, the Statesman said, adding that Salinas characterized his response as “automatic” and “mechanical.”
The paper said Salinas reached for his shoulder holster and pulled his FN Five-Seven — a semi-automatic gun with a suppressor on the barrel — and then went through four steps borrowed from the military that he’d been drilling every week for years.
More from the Statesman:
Observe. Salinas ran from the car, gun drawn. Video posted to social media shows a man slinking behind In-N-Out signs and shrubs, seeking out the source of the gunfire.
Orient. Hidden from view, he established sight lines. He reminded himself to stay disciplined on the trigger. Soon, he saw a man, who police later identified as 24-year-old Chad Williams, standing by the drive-through window. He watched as Williams lifted a rifle to his shoulder and fired toward cars.
Decide. “OK,” Salinas thought. “This is the guy.”
Act. He leveled his pistol with both hands and fired.
Salinas told ABC News the suspect seemed calm as he aimed at cars but that his demeanor shifted once shots were fired in his direction.
“He seemed unusually comfortable aiming that rifle at those cars,” Salinas noted to the news network, adding that “as soon as some rounds started coming at him, everything changed … all that bravado he had immediately crumbled.”
RELATED: Suspect in deadly shooting at Idaho In-N-Out died of self-inflicted gunshot wound; 2 ‘heroic’ bystanders fired at him: Police
Salinas told the Statesman he felt “no fear” before, during, or after pulling the trigger.
“There’s a task that needs to be done, and we’re the ones who need to do it,” he added to the paper.
Salinas wasn’t alone in defending others that day. The other good guy with a gun was an off-duty state trooper, Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks told the Associated Press, adding that their efforts diverted the gunman from the In-N-Out.
“We believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties,” the chief said, according to the AP. “We want to take a moment and commend the actions of the off-duty officer and the citizen and their heroic action to stop this incident.”
Police who responded to the shooting found the body of the suspected gunman — identified as 24-year-old Chad Williams — in an area near the restaurant, Twin Falls spokesperson Josh Palmer said, according to the AP. The outlet, citing police, said the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Salinas is a health care worker — the full-time caregiver of his wheelchair-bound brother — the Statesman said, adding that he began training seriously after a 2021 shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall took the lives of two victims and injured several more.
Gunmen, Salinas told the paper, went after “soft targets” — and that a person in a wheelchair and his aide would be as soft as they come.
So Salinas has been shooting on weekends and training in the desert outside of Eden, a small town in eastern Jerome County, the Statesman said.
However, the paper said Salinas had never even pointed his gun at an animal and never thought he’d need to use anything he was practicing.
“Everyone says, ‘It’s not going to happen here,’” Salinas noted to the Statesman. “But what if it does?”
On Sunday, the day after the deadly shooting, Salinas’ drinks at his regular coffee shop were on the house, the paper said, adding that friends and strangers shook his hand.
“My buddies are over at Sportsman’s buying ammo because of you,” a customer said, according to the Statesman.
The paper added that another customer opened his computer to a meme showing Salinas’ bearded silhouette in black against the yellow of a Gadsden flag with a pistol pointed across the screen — and underneath was a three-word phrase:
“Idaho shoots back.”
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