Ashley Garibay, a 23-year-old In-N-Out Burger employee from Stockton, California, has been identified as one of three people killed when a gunman opened fire at the chain's Twin Falls, Idaho location, a restaurant that had been open barely ten days.
Garibay was working her shift Saturday afternoon when 24-year-old Chad Williams walked up to the drive-thru area carrying what a witness described as an AR-style rifle and began shooting. The gunfire started inside the restaurant and spilled into the parking lot, where an off-duty state trooper and an armed citizen fired back at Williams, Fox News reported. Williams retreated and was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Three people died. Seven others were wounded. The dead included Garibay and 59-year-old customer Cristopher Claunch, who friends said had been thrilled to visit the restaurant for the first time since it opened July 24. The third victim has not been publicly named. Police said Williams acted alone, and Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks told reporters the community threat was over, but investigators still have no motive.
The In-N-Out in Twin Falls sits in one of the busiest commercial corridors in southern Idaho. It opened July 24 as part of the chain's expansion into the state, and by all accounts it was drawing large crowds. Hicks described the scope of the chaos in blunt terms.
Just The News reported Hicks's full remarks at a press conference:
"We have literally hundreds of people that were in some way, shape or form in the area of this restaurant at the time. This is an exceptionally chaotic scene, on a Saturday afternoon here in Twin Falls, at one of the busiest locations in all of southern Idaho."
The shooting began around 2 p.m. Williams emerged from the drive-thru area and opened fire. The Washington Examiner confirmed he was armed with an AR-style rifle and fired in both the drive-thru and parking lot areas. Customers and employees scrambled for cover. One In-N-Out worker dragged a wounded co-worker across the parking lot while others tried to help until paramedics arrived, the Associated Press reported.
Nayeli Rodriguez, a 40-year-old survivor, described the desperate flight from the scene: "We were trying to get as far as we could and some angels let us in their car." Another eyewitness, 34-year-old Lane Koehn, recalled seeing an injured person and said, "She was pretty bad off, but I don't know. I hope she made it."
Two armed individuals, an off-duty state trooper and a civilian, returned fire on Williams in the parking lot. Twin Falls Police Chief Hicks publicly commended both of them.
"We want to take a moment and commend the actions of the off-duty officer and the citizen and their heroic action to stop this incident."
Fox News reported that the two men helped drive Williams away from the restaurant, potentially preventing further casualties. Williams was later found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The armed citizen's intervention is consistent with a pattern that follow-up reporting on the Twin Falls shooting has explored in greater detail.
The incident underscores a reality that gun-control advocates rarely acknowledge: armed civilians on the scene can and do limit the damage a shooter inflicts. Idaho is a constitutional carry state, meaning residents can carry firearms without a permit. In this case, that legal framework may have saved lives.
It is hardly the only recent example. A Marine veteran in Maryland disarmed a teen gunman during a carjacking attempt, and the broader debate over armed self-defense has intensified as Congress recently voted to allow personal firearms on military bases.
Garibay, 23, was from Stockton, California. The New York Post reported that friends and family identified her as a victim through social media posts on Monday, two days after the shooting. In-N-Out Burger President Lynsi Snyder issued an emotional statement mourning the loss.
"My heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I've shed. We lost one of our beautiful Associates tonight. 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."
Snyder added that In-N-Out "will be mourning with the families and praying for them as they tread through a very painful season," and that her heart "also goes out to all of the Associates and Customers who were there during this traumatic event."
Garibay's friend Alissa Juarez wrote a tribute on Facebook: "Oh my beautiful friend...my heart breaks seeing your pictures knowing they'll just be memories now." Garibay's mother, Sabrina Garibay, changed her Facebook profile picture to an image of herself smiling beside her daughter.
One commenter on the mother's photo wrote: "I remember when you were baby and you to come stay with me so mom could go to work. With your brother and sister. You have become a beautiful young lady. Rest in paradise mija."
A young woman leaves her hometown, takes a job at a brand-new restaurant in a small Idaho city, and nine days later she is dead. The randomness of it is what makes mass shootings so difficult to process, and so important to examine honestly, without political opportunism.
Claunch, the other named victim, was 59 years old. He had reportedly been excited to visit the Twin Falls In-N-Out for the first time since its July 24 opening. He was a customer, not an employee, just a man who wanted a burger at a restaurant that had been open less than two weeks. The initial breaking coverage of the shooting identified him among the dead.
The third person killed has not been publicly identified. Police have not said whether any of the seven wounded remain in critical condition.
Investigators have not established why Williams attacked the restaurant. Breitbart reported that authorities are working to determine a motive while reviewing eyewitness accounts and video footage to reconstruct the sequence of events. The FBI has committed resources to the investigation alongside local law enforcement.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Boles said the bureau had "committed the full weight of our resources to the Twin Falls Police Department, deploying every investigative and intelligence tool at our disposal."
Williams was 24 years old. No prior relationship between him and the restaurant or its employees has been reported. No criminal history or background details about Williams have been released publicly. The absence of a known motive leaves the community, and the families of the dead, waiting for answers that may or may not come.
Public shootings in commercial settings have become a grim fixture of American life. An Alabama father was shot dead in a Walmart parking lot after a trivial dispute, and incidents like the Twin Falls shooting remind Americans that ordinary errands can turn fatal without warning.
But what happened in that parking lot also matters. Two armed men ran toward the gunfire, not away from it. An employee crawled across asphalt to pull a co-worker to safety. Ordinary people did extraordinary things while the bullets were still flying. That part of the story deserves at least as much attention as the body count.
