Jordan Salinas, one of the heroic armed bystanders who returned gunfire during a shooting at an In-N-Out restaurant in Falls Church, Idaho, on Saturday, described the moment in an on-camera interview this week.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, three were confirmed dead on Saturday evening after a shooting at an In-N-Out restaurant in Twin Falls, Idaho. At least five victims were wounded in the attack.
Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks confirmed during a press conference on Saturday that a citizen returned fire at the gunman, 24-year-old Chad Williams, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The heroic citizen bystander who jumped into action was later identified as Salinas, 35, of Kimberly, Idaho. He said in an interview on Sunday that he had spent years training with firearms for the moment. “Everyone says, ‘It’s not going to happen here,’” he said. “But what if it does?”
His “heroic action,” said Police Chief Matthew Hicks, “helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties.” What better argument can you have for the Second Amendment?
Viral footage from the scene shows Salinas, donning a cowboy hat, firing back at the gunman using his FN Five-Seven handgun and ducking for cover in the bushes as the gunman seemingly fires back.
In an interview with ABC, Salinas told ABC’s Trevor Ault, “I peeked around the right-hand side of that sign, closest to the road, and that’s where I saw the individual with his rifle pointed at the vehicles.”
“He seemed unusually comfortable aiming that rifle at those cars, and then as soon as some rounds started coming at him, everything changed,” he said.
“Immediately, all that, you know, all that bravado he had immediately crumbled.”
Salinas further said, “He didn’t know where I was. When those first shots broke at him, I mean, he had no idea.”
WATCH:
In another portion of the interview, Salinas said his instinct to fight back “was like a switch, like okay, you know, green light,” adding, “like this is real. It’s happening.”
He described seeing “a sea of people, just flooding out of the building” when he arrived in the parking lot for lunch. His girlfriend, Emily Cohelo, said, “We didn’t know what was going on. We both thought it might have been a kitchen fire.”
“My goal was to try to help as many people get home as possible, you know, to be with their families, be with their friends. That was the entire goal,” Salinas added.
More from Good Morning America:
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Salinas quickly went viral on social media with many highlighting his social media posts, including a recent post from July 5, 2026. Salinas is seen on video shooting an automatic rifle, clad in military-style gear, with American flags on his SUV.
WATCH:
“Celebrating the 250th as the founding fathers intended. Exercising the inalienable right to a well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” Salinas wrote in the post.
The solution to gun violence could never be more obvious: We need more armed heroes like Jordan Salinas, not fewer guns.
The post WATCH: Hero Jordan Salinas Speaks Out in Interview After Gunfight During Falls Church In-N-Out Shooting, Says Shooter’s “Bravado Immediately Crumbled” When He Began Firing Back appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.