Authorities say the suspected gunman was found dead near the restaurant, but key questions remain about the victims, the motive and how the attack unfolded in a crowded shopping area.
A shooting at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, left three people dead and seven others wounded on Saturday, and police found the suspected gunman dead near the restaurant, officials said. The Twin Falls In-N-Out shooting is being investigated as a mass shooting, with investigators still seeking a motive and, as of Monday, withholding victims’ names while families were notified.
The attack unfolded around 2 p.m. at a busy shopping plaza in southern Idaho, where hundreds of people were nearby. Officials said some of the wounded were critically injured, making the toll and the investigation still unsettled.
The confirmed toll so far
Twin Falls city public information officer Josh Palmer told The Associated Press that three people were killed and seven more were injured in the shooting at the In-N-Out Burger restaurant. Some of the injured were in critical condition, he said.
Police who responded found the body of the suspected gunman in an area near the restaurant. Palmer said he did not know whether the suspect was included in the three-person fatality count, an important detail that had not yet been clarified in the immediate aftermath.
Authorities were also still working to notify victims’ relatives, which is why names, ages and other identifying details had not been released. That means the public picture of who was harmed remains incomplete, even as the scale of the attack is clear.
Police say the threat ended
Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said at a news conference Saturday that investigators were still trying to determine the shooter’s identity and motive. He also sought to reassure residents that there was no continuing danger.
"We believe the threat to the community is over," Hicks said, according to AP. He described the scene as "very chaotic."
That assessment matters in a city where rumors and fear can spread quickly after a public attack. Still, saying the threat is over is not the same as explaining why the shooting happened, whether anyone was targeted, or how the gunman moved through the area before dying near the restaurant.
Palmer said investigators were interviewing witnesses. Those interviews may be central to reconstructing the timeline because the shooting happened in a crowded commercial area, not an isolated location.
Witnesses describe sudden panic
Several witness accounts shared with AP point to a fast-moving and confusing scene. Lane Koehn, 34, said he was at a stoplight near the In-N-Out when he saw a person with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru area. He also said a man with a pistol began firing at the shooter.
Koehn described seeing someone in an In-N-Out uniform pull another uniformed person, who appeared to be badly wounded, across the parking lot. He said he stayed with others until paramedics arrived.
Another resident, Haley Dodaro, 43, told AP she and her mother were waiting in the drive-thru line when they saw people running and workers fleeing the restaurant. At first, she thought there might have been a fire. Then someone directing traffic said there was a shooter.
Nayeli Rodriguez, 40, of Burley, said she was inside waiting for food with her daughters when she heard shots from the kitchen area. She said an employee told people to get down, and an older man tried to protect her and her children before they escaped outside.
A crowded restaurant, newly opened
The location added another layer to the shock. The In-N-Out in Twin Falls had opened on July 24, just over a week before the shooting, as part of the California-based chain’s expansion into Idaho.
New restaurant openings often draw heavy traffic, and AP reported that hundreds of people were in the area when the shooting happened. The restaurant sits in a busy shopping plaza, which increased the number of possible witnesses and people at risk.
Multiple people were taken to St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center. A hospital spokesperson said the medical center was working closely with law enforcement and emergency responders as they handled the situation.
Twin Falls is a city of about 56,000 people, roughly 130 miles southeast of Boise and about 40 miles north of the Nevada border. For a community that size, a shooting with 10 people killed or wounded at a familiar fast-food setting is not just a police incident; it becomes a civic trauma.
Why it is called a mass shooting
The term "mass shooting" can be used differently depending on the database, agency or news organization. A common public-facing definition counts incidents in which four or more people are shot, not including the shooter.
By any ordinary reading of the reported toll — three dead and seven wounded — the Twin Falls attack fits that grim category. The uncertainty over whether the suspected gunman is included in the fatality count does not change the fact that multiple victims were shot in a public place.
At the same time, investigators have not publicly released several facts that often shape how such attacks are understood: the gunman’s identity, any connection to the restaurant or victims, and whether the shooting was targeted or random.
Those distinctions matter. They affect how law enforcement evaluates warning signs, whether the public believes a location was singled out, and how survivors understand what happened to them.
What remains unanswered
The most urgent unanswered question is motive. Police have said they were still trying to determine why the shooter opened fire, and officials had not released details about any prior relationship between the gunman and the victims.
It also remains unclear whether the man with a pistol described by a witness was a bystander, how his actions affected the outcome, and what police have independently confirmed about that part of the encounter. Witness accounts can be crucial, but they are often incomplete in chaotic scenes.
Authorities also need to clarify the final death count, including whether the suspected gunman is among the three reported dead. That detail affects how the public understands the number of victims and the full human cost of the attack.
For now, the official response is still in the fact-gathering stage: notifying families, interviewing witnesses, reviewing video, treating the wounded and reconstructing the minutes around the shooting. The central facts are already devastating. The full story is still being assembled.
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