TWIN FALLS: Three people were killed and at least two others injured Saturday afternoon in a shooting at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in southern Idaho, with the suspected gunman among the dead, authorities said.
Twin Falls police responded to an active shooter report around 2:30 p.m. at the restaurant on Blue Lakes Boulevard North in a busy commercial district. Police Chief Matthew Hicks said during a news conference that the shooter was deceased and the threat to the community had ended, though authorities were still working to identify the suspect and determine a motive.
“It was a very chaotic scene,” Hicks said, adding that officials were still in the process of notifying next of kin and did not yet have an exact casualty count.
City spokesperson Josh Palmer told news outlets that three people had died and at least two were injured, but it remained unclear whether the gunman was included in the fatality count. Police found the suspect’s body in an area near the restaurant, Palmer said.
Witness Lane Koehn, 34, told The Associated Press he was at a stoplight near the restaurant when he saw a person with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru area. A man with a pistol began firing at the shooter, Koehn said.
Koehn said he then saw an In-N-Out employee drag a wounded coworker, who had been shot in the chest, across the parking lot to safety. “She was pretty bad off, but I don’t know. I hope she made it,” Koehn said.
Hundreds of people were in the busy shopping area at the time of the shooting, Hicks said. Police closed roads and a nearby bridge as they responded and began interviewing witnesses.
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo said he was “grateful for the swift response of Idaho’s first responders”.
Twin Falls is a city of about 56,000 people in southern Idaho, approximately 130 miles southeast of Boise.
