Three killed, seven injured in shooting at Idaho burger restaurant

Twin Falls, Idaho: Three people are dead and seven others injured, some critically, after a shooting at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Twin Falls, southern Idaho, a city spokesman has said.

Police responding to the shooting on Saturday afternoon (Sunday AEST) found the body of the suspected gunman near the restaurant, Twin Falls city public information officer Josh Palmer said. He did not know if the suspect was included in the fatality count.

Officials were still working on notifying victims’ family members, so they were not yet releasing names, ages, or other details about the dead and injured, Palmer said.

Earlier, Twin Falls police chief Matthew Hicks said police were still working to establish the gunman’s identity and motive and described the aftermath of the shooting as “a very chaotic scene”.

Lane Koehn, 34, said he was at a red light near the In-N-Out restaurant when he saw a person with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru. A man with a pistol then started firing at the shooter.

He then saw someone in an In-N-Out uniform drag a person, also uniformed, bleeding from a gunshot wound in her chest across the car park. The employee, Koehn and the man with the pistol stayed until paramedics arrived for her.

“She was pretty bad off, but I don’t know. I hope she made it,” Koehn said.

Koehn said he was told by the police to evacuate because the shooter was still active.

He said the shooter fired at least three or four rounds, and it was not clear whether or not anyone in particular was targeted.

Shooter dressed in black

Video taken by a driver from across the street captured the gunman, who appeared to be dressed in black, walking up to a white car carrying a long rifle, opening the driver-side door and the boot.

The person then walked to the boot and reached inside. At that point, the driver who shot the video left, fearing that the man might be getting more weapons.

Twin Falls resident Haley Dodaro, 43, and her mother were waiting in the drive-thru line when they saw people running across the road and workers bolting out of the restaurant. At first, Dodaro thought there might have been a fire, but then a man directing traffic in a reflective vest said there was a gunman.

“So that’s when we knew there was a shooting. People were running out, crying and screaming. It was very scary,” Dodaro said in a text message to the Associated Press.

The nearby Magic Valley Mall was closed, and people were told to shelter inside, according to an employee who spoke to NBC News.

“We are currently in a lockdown,” he said. “There has been a mass shooting.”

St Luke’s Magic Valley spokesperson Taylor Marschner said in a statement that the medical centre was “working closely with law enforcement and emergency responders as they manage the situation”.

Twin Falls, a city of about 56,000 people, is about 205 kilometres south-east of Boise and about 120 kilometres north of the Nevada border.

According to the London Telegraph, the Twin Falls branch of In-N-Out Burger opened only nine days ago, with local residents queuing overnight to be among the first to eat there.

AP

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