{"id":977681,"date":"2026-08-03T11:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/977681\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T11:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:03:20","slug":"who-is-jordan-salinas-hero-bystander-who-confronted-idaho-shooter-gun-violence-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/977681\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Jordan Salinas, \u2018hero\u2019 bystander who confronted Idaho shooter? | Gun Violence News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bystander named Jordan Salinas has been hailed a \u201chero\u201d in the United States after confronting an armed man at a shopping centre in Idaho on Saturday. At least three people were killed<\/a> and several others wounded in the shooting.<\/p>\n

The suspect, Chad Williams, 24, who was later found dead close to the scene, allegedly opened fire at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in the city of Twin Falls, Idaho, on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Twin Falls police chief Matthew Hicks praised an off-duty officer and \u201ca citizen\u201d who fired at the suspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While police have not officially named the citizen who confronted the attacker, viral videos have identified Salinas as the said bystander. He later recounted how he confronted Williams to the Idaho Statesman newspaper.<\/p>\n

What happened on Saturday and who is Salinas? Here\u2019s what we know:<\/p>\n

What happened in Idaho on Saturday?<\/p>\n

On Saturday afternoon, Williams allegedly opened fire at an In-N-Out Burger outlet in Twin Falls, a city in south-central Idaho, killing at least three people, including an employee of the fast-food restaurant, and wounding around seven.<\/p>\n

According to the Idaho Statesman, the attacker fired shots at a vehicle before an off-duty officer confronted him, along with Salinas, who was there as a customer. They returned fire, forcing Williams towards an open car park.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, police chief Hicks said Williams died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was found nearby.<\/p>\n

He told a news conference that law enforcement is working to determine a possible motive for the attack and said the suspect\u2019s family was cooperating with authorities.<\/p>\n

Hicks also warned against the spread of false claims and misinformation, noting that a man who had \u201cno involvement in this incident whatsoever\u201d had been falsely identified online as the attacker.<\/p>\n

What do we know about the victims?<\/p>\n

The names of the victims have not yet been released.<\/p>\n

One of those killed is known to have been an employee at the restaurant, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I\u2019ve shed. We lost one of our beautiful Associates tonight,\u201d In-N-Out owner and president Lynsi Snyder said in a statement released early on Sunday via social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn-N-Out will be mourning with the families and praying for them as they tread through a very painful season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the seven people injured in the attack, police said two had been treated at a hospital and discharged, three were in stable condition, and two remained\u00a0in a\u00a0critical\u00a0condition.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the FBI encouraged members of the public with videos or images related to the incident to share them with law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

What do we know about Jordan Salinas, the bystander who intervened?<\/p>\n

Viral videos on social media show Salinas as the armed bystander. While police have not officially identified him, Salinas has come forward and told the Idaho Statesman how he confronted Williams.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old healthcare worker is from Kimberly, Idaho. He and his girlfriend had planned to go horse riding in Hagerman but first stopped for lunch at the In-N-Out Burger restaurant, off Blue Lakes Boulevard in Twin Falls, at about 2:30pm local time (20:30 GMT).<\/p>\n

The scene at the restaurant soon turned chaotic with people fleeing, Salinas said. He initially thought a kitchen fire had occurred, but then heard the \u201cpop-pop-pop\u201d sound of gunfire and realised a shooting was taking place.<\/p>\n

He said he ran towards the sound in an \u201cautomatic\u201d and \u201cmechanical\u201d response. He said he only remembers his girlfriend calling out his name before the shooting began again.<\/p>\n

Salinas told the Idaho Statesman that he had been training to handle firearms following a 2021 shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall that killed two people. He said he trained at weekends in the desert outside Eden, a small town in eastern Jerome County, but had never pointed his gun at \u201cso much as an animal\u201d before Saturday.<\/p>\n

He said he followed a four-step approach he had practised for years \u2013 \u201cobserve, orient, decide, act\u201d \u2013 to confront the attacker on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not like it when bullets started firing both ways,\u201d he told the daily, adding that he felt \u201cno fear\u201d before, during or after firing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a task that needs to be done, and we\u2019re the ones who need to do it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On social media, his actions have been praised, with many X users calling him a hero.<\/p>\n

In a statement on his Facebook page late on Sunday, Salinas wrote that the past 24 hours had been \u201coverwhelming\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to sincerely thank my family, friends, and everyone who has reached out with messages, prayers, and support. I haven\u2019t been able to respond to everyone yet, but please know I\u2019ve seen your messages, and they mean more to me than I can put into words,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the coming days, I\u2019ll share a more complete account of what happened, to the best of my recollection, when I\u2019m able. For now, my heart remains with the victims, their families, and everyone affected by yesterday\u2019s tragedy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

What do we know about the suspect?<\/p>\n

There is little information about the attacker so far.<\/p>\n

One witness, named as Lane Koehn, said Williams was armed with an AR-style rifle.<\/p>\n

He told NBC News on Sunday that he watched the attacker take aim at a car in front of him before moving through the drive-through towards his own car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could tell he was trying to figure out where to go, and somebody in the drive-through line with a handgun was shooting at him,\u201d Koehn said.<\/p>\n

Koehn also described the attacker as \u201cpanicked\u201d, and said he was aware of someone moving around \u201ckind of erratically\u201d.<\/p>\n

Koehn added that it was the armed bystander who prevented the attacker from firing at more people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shooter was solely focused on him, and [it] allowed us to get out \u2026 I mean, the car directly ahead of me was getting shot \u2013 it gave them time to leave,\u201d Koehn said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bystander named Jordan Salinas has been hailed a \u201chero\u201d in the United States after confronting an armed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":977682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4219,337,4222,51,50,7207,52,72],"class_list":["post-977681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-crime","tag-explainer","tag-gun-violence","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-police","tag-top-stories","tag-us-canada"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117031246726295740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/977682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}