Dramatic surveillance video captures the moment three armed civilians exchanged fire with Idaho In-N-Out shooting suspect Chad Williams, actions authorities say helped prevent the attack from escalating even further.
Williams, 24, was challenged at separate moments by a former police officer, an off-duty state trooper and an armed bystander during the violent rampage that killed three people and injured seven others, according to footage released Friday by the Twin Falls Police Department.
The video opens with Williams arriving in a white Honda Civic at the popular restaurant’s drive-thru window. Within moments, he draws a firearm and shoots In-N-Out employee Ashley Garibay, who later died from her injuries.
Williams then inches the car forward before stepping out with a black handgun and moving toward the drive-thru’s second window.
At that location, he fatally shoots 59-year-old Christopher Claunch, who was sitting inside another vehicle, the video’s narrator says.
Seconds later, former Twin Falls and Idaho State Police Officer Austin “AJ” Scott can be seen rushing toward the armed suspect as the chaos unfolds.
Williams turns his weapon on Scott and fires, hitting the former officer during the attack. Police have not yet disclosed a motive for the shooting.
Despite being wounded, Scott draws his own handgun and prepares to confront Williams again in another section of the parking lot.
But “due to [Scott’s] severe injury and blood loss, he is pulled back into his vehicle before going to the hospital,” the narrator explains.
The clip shows another individual grabbing Scott by his shirt and dragging him toward one of at least five cars in line for the drive-thru.
Scott’s father has since written on Facebook that his son was “critically injured” and now faces “a long road of surgeries, recovery and rehab.”
The terrifying surveillance video eventually pans to show Williams peering back into the restaurant’s payment window, where he fires another shot at employees who were inside rendering aid to Garibay, 23.
At that point, his handgun jams, so he heads back to his car to retrieve a rifle before going into the restaurant, the narrator says.
Meanwhile, surveillance footage taken from inside the eatery’s kitchen shows at least nine employees frantically scrambling over each other on the ground while a second hero – an off-duty Idaho State Police trooper – is seen waving one hand and holding a back handgun in the other, motioning for them to flee the area.
The unidentified trooper bravely helped evacuate employees and customers before he carefully canvassed the restaurant’s back-of-house area, according to police and the footage.
He eventually comes face-to-face with Williams.
The two exchange fire before Williams briefly retreats from the window.
He soon returns and fires another shot through the window, striking “a Good Samaritan who is attempting to assist the off-duty trooper and render aid to the victim inside,” the narrator says.
Williams then flees the restaurant and opens fire on multiple vehicles stopped at a nearby red light, striking three victims, before running to a nearby Tesla charging station, according to the video.
There, he fires at the first Tesla he sees before fatally shooting Dale Schultz, 66, and hitting the man’s now gravely injured wife, Reinette, inside their car.
But Williams is confronted once again – this time by “an armed good Samaritan,” who fires back at him, the narrator says.
An officer’s bodycam footage later shows the moment he spots Williams on a nearby river bank.
“Hey, show me your hands!” the cop yells.
At that very moment, Williams “dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and falls into the canyon,” the narrator says as the video ends.
Authorities on Friday praised the civilians who intervened during the deadly rampage – crediting their actions with saving lives.
“The Twin Falls Police Department is certain that additional acts of heroism and rendering aid to those in need contributed to the saving of lives,” reads a slide at the end of the video.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of the bystanders shown or mentioned were Jordan Salinas, a healthcare worker and the full-time caregiver of his brother, who has been hailed as a local hero since he reportedly intervened during the shooting.
