Civilian hero: Citizen trained in self-defense confronted shooter at In-N-Out after witnessing another massacre

Jordan Salinas, a 35-year-old healthcare worker hailed as a hero for responding to 24-year-old shooter Chad Williams during a deadly Aug. 1, 2026, attack at an In-N-Out drive-thru in Idaho, had prepared for years for a situation like this. His motivation for self-defense training came after he himself witnessed another mass shooting.

On the morning of the incident, Salinas, who is also a full-time caregiver for his wheelchair-bound brother, was riding with his girlfriend when they stopped at the Twin Falls In-N-Out for lunch. Arriving at the scene, the couple quickly realized something was wrong.

A large crowd of people was running through the restaurant’s exit doors. Salinas initially thought it might be a kitchen fire, but soon heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots.

Acting on pure instinct, Salinas ran toward the sound of the gunshots, a reaction he would later describe as “automatic” and “mechanical,” in his own words.

He drew his FN Five-Seven semiautomatic pistol, equipped with a suppressor, and confronted Williams applying the four-step military approach: “Observe, Orient, Decide and Act.”

Salinas got out of the car with the gun drawn as his girlfriend called out to him. At that moment, the shooting started again.

Videos show Salinas slowly advancing toward the restaurant, seeking shelter behind bushes and In-N-Out signs.

From his hidden position, he saw Williams near the drive-thru, raising a rifle to his shoulder and beginning to fire at the vehicles.

“Okay, that’s the guy,” he thought when he saw the shooter, as he later reported.

With the pistol raised in both hands, he fired a shot, the first time he had aimed his weapon at a live target, he said.

“He didn’t like it when the bullets started firing in both directions,” Salinas said.

Williams became the target of gunfire from both Salinas and an off-duty police officer who was at the restaurant, according to Twin Falls County Sheriff Jack Johnson.

The shooter left the drive-thru and headed to an open parking lot at the Twin Falls visitor center. Police confirmed he later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Three people were killed and seven others were injured in the In-N-Out shooting, but police said the death toll would undoubtedly have been higher without the quick action of Salinas and the off-duty police officer.

“These people are true heroes in our community,” Johnson said of the two men who returned fire. “They diverted the shooter and undoubtedly saved many lives.”

Salinas later stood back to allow officers to do their work as they arrived in large numbers at the parking lot.

“My part is done,” he remembers thinking at that moment.

He revealed that when he witnessed the 2021 mass shooting at the Boise Towne Square mall, which left two dead and several injured, he noticed that the shooters were deliberately targeting “soft targets.”

The hero citizen concluded that their role as caregiver for their wheelchair-bound brother would make them vulnerable targets in a similar situation.