Chad Williams, 24, walked up to the new In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls and started shooting. Three people died. Seven more got hit. Then he turned the gun on himself and that was the end of it.
Police say he acted alone. No long manifesto has turned up yet. Detectives and the FBI are still digging through what he left behind and talking to everyone who saw him that afternoon.
One of the people who stood up to him was Austin “AJ” Scott James. The off-duty officer heard the first shots and charged toward the sound instead of running away. Williams put rounds into him. AJ went down hard and now faces a string of surgeries and months of recovery.
AJ’s wife Connie stopped the bleeding with a tourniquet before the ambulance got there. His father Marcus Scott and grandfather Larry James both said the same thing. AJ did what the badge taught him, even when he was not wearing it. He is third-generation law enforcement.
Chief Matthew Hicks told reporters the off-duty officer and an armed civilian pushed Williams away from the biggest clusters of people. That move, Hicks said, kept more folks from getting killed.
Among the dead were Christopher “Toph” Claunch, known around town, and Ashley, who worked at the restaurant. Twin Falls is still counting the cost. Williams is gone by his own hand. The rest of the story sits with the people who lived through the minutes he was firing.
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