A former classmate of the gunman who killed three people at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, says Chad Williams withdrew from campus life after being removed from student government, and never recovered.

Williams, 24, opened fire on a Saturday afternoon at the busy restaurant, striking ten people before turning the gun on himself. Three died. Seven others were wounded, two of them critically. An off-duty state trooper and an armed civilian, 35-year-old Jordan Salinas, returned fire during the attack and, according to Twin Falls police, drove Williams away from the restaurant and prevented further casualties.

Investigators are still searching for a motive. But a picture of Williams's decline is starting to take shape, and it traces back to a formal rebuke by his own peers at the College of Southern Idaho more than three years ago.

Impeached by fellow students in February 2023

Williams had been a nursing student and student senator at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. In February 2023, his fellow student senators unanimously impeached him, the student-government equivalent of a formal removal, for lack of engagement. AP News reported the vote was unanimous.

Elijah Moseley, a former dormitory neighbor and fellow student government participant, told The Arizona Republic that Williams had simply faded. He described a young man who was once quiet but present, and then wasn't.

"He just wasn't as involved anymore. Wasn't as interested, wasn't attending as much."

Moseley told reporters that Williams had never been someone who demanded attention. "He didn't need a lot of attention," Moseley said. After the impeachment, Williams left the college without earning his degree. He had attended for two years.

Moseley said he was "heartbroken" when he heard about the shooting and called it "wrong" and "evil." But he also made clear he could not reconcile the person he once knew with the act committed at that restaurant.

"All I know is what he was to me, back in the day."

Williams posted about crime and gun rights before the attack

The Arizona Republic reported that Williams appeared to have grown more politically active on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in the period after leaving college. He posted about crime, immigration enforcement, and what he saw as restrictions on gun rights. No specific posts or timestamps have been released publicly.

Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks, identified by name in statements carried by Fox News, said investigators are confident Williams acted alone. His family is cooperating with the investigation. A motive has not been determined.

The FBI has also joined the case. FBI Salt Lake City 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."

Hicks described the scene as extraordinarily chaotic. Just The News reported his statement that "literally hundreds of people" were in or near the restaurant at the time of the shooting. A witness told Just The News the gunman appeared to be carrying what looked like an AR-style rifle, emerging from the drive-thru area.

Armed civilian and off-duty trooper drew fire away from victims

The intervention by Salinas and the unnamed off-duty state trooper has drawn widespread attention. Viral footage showed Salinas aiming at Williams during the attack. Witness Lane Koehn, who spoke to NBC News, described the moment the civilian engaged the shooter from the drive-thru line.

"I could tell he was trying to figure out where to go, and somebody in the drive-thru line with a handgun was shooting at him."

Koehn said Williams appeared "panicked" and was acting "kind of erratically" once return fire began. The distraction gave other people time to escape. Koehn described the car directly ahead of him taking gunfire, and said the armed civilian's engagement gave those occupants time to flee.

"The shooter was solely focused on him, and [it] allowed us to get out. I mean, the car directly ahead of me was getting shot, it gave them time to leave."

Chief Hicks praised both men publicly. "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," he said. "We believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties."

Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador echoed that sentiment. "Idaho is grateful for Jordan Salinas," the Washington Examiner reported Labrador saying. "We are grateful for the off-duty officer who stood with him."

Mass shootings in public spaces have become a grim pattern across the country, from a recent festival shooting in Seattle to weekend gun violence in major cities. In each case, the question of who intervenes, and how fast, shapes the body count.

Three lives ended, each one with a story

Ashley Garibay, 23, was an In-N-Out employee from Stockton, California. She was working the day of the shooting. In-N-Out President Lynsi Snyder released a statement on Sunday calling Garibay "beautiful" and describing the pain the company felt at her loss.

"My heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I've shed."

Snyder added that Garibay "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."

Garibay's mother, Sabrina Garibay, changed her social media profile picture to an image of herself and her daughter after the shooting. A family member posted a tribute calling Ashley "so beautiful" and writing, "You will be missed so much... Rest in paradise."

Christopher Claunch, 59, worked at the Renaissance Ranch Recovery Center. Originally from California, he had lived in Idaho for roughly three decades. His sister, Kimberly Castaneda, told the New York Times that Claunch had been sober for two years after struggling with alcoholism, and that he had finally found stability.

Castaneda remembered her brother's humor. She recalled a moment when he grabbed a headband she was wearing, one with small tin wheels on it, and wore it himself without a trace of self-consciousness.

"My silly brother took my headband that I was wearing with little tin wheels on it... and he sat with those things on like it was just no big deal. He was always being a goofball."

The third victim has not been publicly identified. Of the seven wounded, two were hospitalized and later released. Three were listed as stable. Two remained in critical condition at the time of the last official update.

The shooting adds Twin Falls to a growing list of American communities forced to absorb violence in ordinary, everyday settings, restaurants, city streets, and public gatherings where no one expects to become a target.

Eyewitness accounts paint a scene of chaos and desperation

Nayeli Rodriguez, 40, was at the scene. She told Breitbart that she and others scrambled for cover. "We were trying to get as far as we could and some angels let us in their car," Rodriguez said.

Koehn, the witness who watched the armed civilian engage Williams, also described seeing a wounded In-N-Out employee during the chaos. "She was pretty bad off, but I don't know. I hope she made it," he said.

The shooting took place in a busy shopping plaza on a Saturday afternoon, peak hours for a restaurant chain known for long lines. Chief Hicks noted the sheer number of potential witnesses and victims, calling the scene "exceptionally chaotic."

Attacks in public spaces around the world have underscored how quickly an armed individual can inflict mass casualties. In Twin Falls, two armed good guys changed the math. Without them, Hicks said plainly, there would have been more dead.

No motive, but a clear trajectory

Williams's path from quiet student senator to mass shooter remains, officially, unexplained. Investigators have not released a motive. They have not disclosed the type of firearm he used, though a witness described what appeared to be an AR-style rifle. They have not said whether Williams had a criminal record or prior law enforcement contact.

What the record does show is a young man who was formally removed from a modest position of responsibility by his own peers, who left school without finishing, and who grew more isolated. Moseley, the former classmate, said he was never frightened by Williams. "I was never scared or weirded out by him," he said.

That ordinariness is part of what makes cases like this so difficult to prevent, and so important to study honestly. The aftermath of mass shootings often reveals warning signs that were visible only in hindsight.

Twin Falls police have not said whether anyone flagged Williams's behavior before the attack. The investigation continues.

When the system fails to catch someone on the way down, it falls to the people in the room, or in the drive-thru line, to stop the killing. In Twin Falls, two of them did.