TWIN FALLS – The Magic Valley is in mourning after it was rocked by deadly violence this weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, a gunman opened fire in the area of a recently opened In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls. By the time it was over, three people were killed, and seven more injured in one of the most horrific mass shootings in Idaho’s recent history.

EastIdahoNews.com went to the scene of what’s officially being referred to as the Canyon Park West Shooting incident, and spoke with three people who were in the area when the violence began.

‘I think I just heard gunshots’

Hailey Bennett and Faythe Goldsberry were both at work at Swig, which is around 160 feet away from In-N-Out, when the shooting first began, just before 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Bennett described working near the syrup station when she heard someone in the soda shop say, “I think I just heard gunshots.”

“And then I look over through our big glass windows, and I just see like a bunch of people running from the In-N-Out,” Bennett said.

And then they heard more gunshots going off.

At the time, there was a family in the soda shop’s lobby, and Bennett said one of them shouted out, “Oh my gosh, there’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!”

Goldsberry described the experience of being in shock after she heard this.

“I didn’t even think anything was happening,” Goldsberry said.

Before the shooting began, Priyank Agarwal, who lives in Boise, was at the nearby Twin Falls Visitor Center with his family to take a look at the “scenic view” of the Snake River Canyon.

Agarwal recalled going out to his car to get a water bottle and returning to the visitor center, only to hear the shooting start about five minutes later.

“We heard three shots being fired, and we started to move very quickly to the corner for safety,” Agarwal said.

‘How do I save my family?’

Back at the Swig, Bennett said they let people who were fleeing the In-N-Out into the store before locking the doors.

“We need to get you to the back! Get to the back! Get to the back!” Bennett recalled her and other store employees saying.

Bennett estimated there were around 18 people in the building, so after locking the employee door in the back and stacking boxes in front of it to obscure visibility, they took shelter in a single-person bathroom.

While Bennett and Goldsberry never saw the gunman, they said that security camera footage showed him walking through their drive-thru before continuing toward the visitor center.

At the visitor center, Agarwal heard someone shout out that they could see the gunman.

“Someone yelled that they saw the gunman walking towards the building,” Agarwal said.

At this point, everyone in the visitor center filed down to an office in the back of the building after a county employee opened up the doors. Agarwal looked back, and also saw the gunman approaching the building.

“We really quickly hurried in, … laid down flat in the office and called 911 to let them know that there was a gunman coming towards us,” Agarwal said.

Agarwal said that at the time, he was in fight-or-flight mode.

“I was trying to figure out ‘how do I save my family?’ So pushing them into the back was the most important thing, that (question) was going through my mind. … Even when we were inside the office, all on the floor, that was going through my mind,” Agarwal said.

While they were hiding, Agarwal said he saw the shadow of the gunman cast along the office, from the sunlight shining through the window.

“At the end of the day, I thought we were all gonna die,” Agarwal said.

But the gunman didn’t fire at them. Agarwal said it’s possible that the gunman became scared of the approaching sirens and fled away from the visitor center because of that.

Agarwal has “huge respect” for the law enforcement that responded to the scene.

“Once they got there, that’s when we felt relief,” Agarwal said.

‘Together, our community will get through this’

At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, law enforcement officers echoed Agarwal’s praise for law enforcement officers and other first responders from multiple agencies who converged on the scene.

“I want to tell the citizens in Twin Falls how proud they should be of the men and women of law enforcement and their first responders, (in) how they responded to this incident and the bravery they displayed yesterday,” Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said. “Together, our community will get through this. To everyone here in Twin Falls, remain Twin Falls strong and support each other.”

During the press conference, Hicks identified the suspected gunman as 24-year-old Chad Williams, saying that he is “deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

His motive is still being investigated.

Police also had high praise for the “heroic” actions of two armed individuals who shot back at the gunman. While they have yet to be identified, Hicks confirmed that both an armed citizen and an off-duty Idaho State Police trooper engaged the gunman by returning fire.

“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. We believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties,” Hicks said.

“These people are true heroes in our community,” Twin Falls County Sheriff Jack Johnson added during the news conference. He said the men “without a doubt saved many lives.”