A Twin Falls, Idaho, pastor escaped a mass shooting at an In-N-Out Burger that left three people dead and seven wounded, a rampage ended only after an off-duty trooper and an armed civilian engaged the gunman.

Chad Williams, 24, opened fire Saturday afternoon at the newly opened fast-food restaurant in Twin Falls, killing three people and wounding seven others before taking his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Among the dead was 23-year-old Ashley Garibay, a California transplant working at the restaurant, and Christopher Claunch, described by a friend as someone who "helped hundreds of people." A local pastor, whose account was reported by KTVB, survived the attack.

Williams acted alone. Authorities have not yet identified a motive. The FBI joined Twin Falls police in the investigation, and officers have been interviewing hundreds of witnesses who were at or near the restaurant when the shooting began.

A former officer ran toward the gunfire, and nearly paid with his life

Austin "A.J." Scott, a former law enforcement officer, did what most people are trained not to do: he moved toward the sound of gunshots. Scott was critically wounded while trying to protect others during the chaos. His father, Marcus Scott, said the family was grateful for his survival.

Marcus Scott told AP News:

"We are incredibly thankful that God spared his life and that his wife and friend were there to provide immediate care until he could get to the hospital."

Scott's wife and a friend applied immediate first aid at the scene, keeping him alive until paramedics arrived. His actions, and the actions of an off-duty Idaho state trooper and an armed civilian who fired on Williams and drew him away from the restaurant, likely prevented a far higher death toll.

That detail deserves emphasis. Two armed good Samaritans engaged the shooter and diverted him from a building packed with families. The attack ended when Williams turned the gun on himself. Without those interventions, the body count could have been catastrophic. It is the kind of outcome that stories linking faith and firearms rarely capture, ordinary people choosing danger over helplessness.

Ashley Garibay, 23, was serving customers when she was killed

Garibay had moved from California to work at the Twin Falls In-N-Out. She was on the job Saturday, serving customers, when Williams opened fire. In-N-Out President Lynsi Snyder issued a statement that did not mince words.

Snyder said:

"She was taking care of our most important asset, our Customers, and her life was taken by a disgusting human who doesn't value the lives of others or his own."

Christopher Claunch was also killed. Garren Taylor, a friend, remembered him as generous and selfless.

"He helped hundreds of people. He was just a gift to anyone he came in contact with."

Three lives ended. Seven more people were sent to the hospital. A pastor walked out alive. And the man responsible never faced a courtroom, he made sure of that himself.

Twin Falls police chief: identifying victims took time

Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks acknowledged the scale of the response in the hours after the shooting. Notification of victims' families was still underway as investigators worked with St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center and the county coroner's office.

Hicks told reporters:

"We're still trying to make notifications to their next-of-kin. We're trying to work with St. Luke's [Magic Valley Medical Center] and our coroner's office to ascertain the exact numbers of fatalities."

The FBI's involvement signals the seriousness of the investigation, though authorities have offered no indication of a terrorism nexus or ideological motive. For now, the "why" remains an open question, one that may never produce a satisfying answer.

Violence against people in houses of worship and public gathering places has become a recurring pattern in American life. Just recently, a Catholic priest was fatally shot in Kenya, a reminder that attacks on clergy and congregations are not confined to one country or one set of circumstances.

For the Twin Falls pastor who survived Saturday's attack, the experience will mark a dividing line in life, before and after. Pastors are no strangers to tragedy. Pastor Greg Locke recently mourned the death of his 20-year-old son from a drug overdose, a different kind of loss but one that tests the same faith.

Armed citizens changed the outcome, and that matters

The political arguments will come. They always do. But the verified facts from Twin Falls point in a specific direction: an off-duty state trooper and an armed civilian engaged the shooter, pulled his attention away from a restaurant full of people, and the attack ended with Williams dead by his own hand.

No law stopped Chad Williams on Saturday. Armed citizens did. The people who ran toward the gunfire, A.J. Scott, the trooper, the unnamed civilian, are the reason the casualty list is not longer. Sometimes the most dramatic interventions come not from institutions but from ordinary people facing extraordinary moments.

Three families are burying someone this week. Seven others are waiting for hospital updates. A pastor is alive. The people who deserve the country's attention are not the ones making policy arguments from a safe distance, they are the ones who stood between a gunman and a dining room full of strangers.