When gunshots rang out at a Twin Falls In-N-Out, this Idaho man shot back

Thirty-five-year-old Jordan Salinas of Kimberly helped slow a mass shooter in Twin Falls. Police would not answer questions but praised "good Samaritan action." The gunman, 24-year-old Chad Williams, later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Salinas pulled into the In-N-Out Burger off of Blue Lakes Boulevard around 2:30 p.m. Chaos followed as he saw scores of people fleeing through the doors. And then he heard the "pop-pop-pop" of gunfire. Salinas reached for his shoulder holster and drew an FN Five-Seven — a semi-automatic pistol with a suppressor fixed to the barrel. He worked through the framework he'd practiced for years. Salinas is a healthcare worker, the full-time caregiver of his wheelchair-bound brother. He began training seriously after a 2021 shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall killed two people and injured several more. 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. He leveled his pistol with both hands, and fired. "He did not like it when bullets started firing both ways," Salinas said Sunday morning. Williams, Salinas said, seemed shocked. He was taking fire from two people: Salinas and an off-duty policeman, a customer at In-N-Out, who returned fire, too, according to Twin Falls County Sheriff Jack Johnson. The return fire drove the shooter from the drive-through, toward an open parking lot at the city's visitor center. Williams later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said Sunday. "These people are true heroes in our community," Johnson said of the two men who returned fire. "They diverted the shooter and without a doubt saved many lives." Law enforcement declined to answer questions from the media Sunday. Johnson would not confirm that Salinas was the civilian who shot back. Neither would spokespeople for the Twin Falls Police Department and the city of Twin Falls. But his girlfriend confirmed his role in confronting the shooter. And at his regular coffee shop Sunday, Salinas' drinks were on the house. A customer overheard, and opened his computer to a meme, one of many social media posts with Salinas' name and likeness that had circulated overnight. It showed Salinas' bearded silhouette black against the yellow of a Gadsden Flag, pistol pointed across the screen. Underneath, they'd printed: "Idaho shoots back."