At least three people were killed and two others wounded after a gunman opened fire at a recently opened In-N-Out Burger on Saturday, sending people running from the shopping center in Twin Falls, Idaho, as shots rang out and the gunfire spilled outside.
A call came in to Twin Falls police around 2:30 p.m. that there was an active shooter inside the dining area of the restaurant, which opened on July 24, said Josh Palmer, a city spokesman.
The suspected shooter is dead, the police chief in Twin Falls, Matthew Hicks, said during a news conference on Saturday. It was not immediately clear if the gunman was among the three fatalities or in addition to them. It was also unknown how the shooter died.
The number of victims is “expected to be higher,” Mr. Palmer said.
The events leading up to the shooting were not immediately known. Chief Hicks said the authorities were trying to interview hundreds of people who had been in the area on a lively Saturday summer afternoon.
He called the area “one of the busiest locations in all of southern Idaho.” The shooting took place at a shopping district that includes big box stores such as Petco, Best Buy and restaurants such as IHOP and Taco Bell.
Lane Koehn, 34, said he was driving home from work when he saw a young man, likely in his teens, carrying a weapon that resembled a large rifle and firing into traffic near a stoplight by the In-N-Out.
“I think it was random, the way the kid was firing,” Mr. Koehn, a construction worker, said. “You can tell he was panicking. He was not very calm and collected, running and slinging his rifle around firing.”
Mr. Koehn said he saw another shooter, “an older gentleman,” exchanging fire with his handgun and appearing to force the younger shooter to run for cover.
Mr. Koehn said he pulled into the In-N-Out parking lot and joined a group of people helping a young woman, a restaurant employee, who had been shot in the chest. A man who said he was a retired paramedic tried to apply pressure to her wound as an ambulance arrived.
The nearby Magic Valley Mall was placed on lockdown, said Cassidy Ennis, 24, who was there with her mother. The lights turned off and people crowded into the corners of stores for cover, she said.
The lockdown, which she said felt as if it lasted an hour, led the police to enter the mall and gather people into the food hall for safety.
“Thankful we’re alive,” Ms. Ennis said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Jaylyn Sanchez, 20, said she had just ordered food inside the In-N-Out and headed to the bathroom. Looking out of the door, she saw people “running out of there as fast as they could.”
She said she barricaded herself inside the bathroom and peeked again out, where it looked “pretty clear.” She then exited the building and, she said, encountered the gunman pointing his weapon at her, and she ducked behind a car.
Ms. Sanchez rejoined her older brother, Dominic Gonzales, 29, who had been waiting in her truck with their two younger brothers, 5 and 6 years old.
Mr. Gonzales said he had heard “pops” after Ms. Sanchez had left the truck. He told his two younger brothers to get down, he said. They had been near the shopping center to see the new Spiderman movie.
By the evening, the police were working with a hospital, St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center, to “ascertain the exact number of fatalities,” Chief Hicks said.
A nearby Chick-fil-A said it was closing for the rest of Saturday. The city’s nearby visitor center also remains closed, Mr. Palmer said. The Perrine Bridge, bringing people in and out of Twin Falls around the shopping district, has now been reopened, Mr. Palmer said.
The In-N-Out Burger had opened July 24, drawing crowds, including some who had camped outside ahead of the morning opening, according to local station KMVT-11. Denny Warnick, the chief operating officer for In-N-Out Burger, told the station it was the state’s fourth location.
Mr. Koehn said the In-N-Out had regularly drawn lines since it opened.
“There’s a lot of traffic around there,” Mr. Koehn said.
Mr. Warnick said in a statement on Saturday that restaurant officials were “heartbroken.”
“Our prayers go out to our customers, our associates, and all of their families,” he said. “We are working with the Twin Falls Police Department to assist in the ongoing investigation.”
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