On Saturday we published that three people were killed and two hurt in a shooting at a newly opened In-N-Out in Twin Falls, Idaho, and we said in the story that the two officials speaking publicly had not given the same account of whether a number could be given at all.
The number has now moved. ABC7's Sunday update reports three killed and five injured, attributed to Twin Falls police spokesman Joshua Palmer, the same official who was the source for two.
We are stating that plainly rather than quietly swapping the figure, because a reader who saw Saturday's story deserves to know which number changed and who changed it.
What is now established
Three people are dead. Five are injured.
The suspected shooter is dead. Police have not released a name, and ABC7's account leaves open whether the shooter is counted among the three deaths. We are not resolving that ourselves. Until an agency says so, three dead and a dead suspect could mean three or four bodies, and guessing is not reporting.
The shooting happened at about 2:29 p.m. Saturday at the In-N-Out on Blue Lakes Boulevard. The restaurant had opened that week.
The one victim we know something about
Lynsi Snyder, In-N-Out's president, confirmed that one of the people killed was an employee. "In-N-Out will be mourning with the families and praying for them as they tread through a very painful season," she said.
Denny Warnick, the company's chief operating officer, said the company was heartbroken.
No victim has been named publicly. Investigators are notifying next of kin, and we will not print a name ahead of that.
Motive
There is none announced. Police Chief Matthew Hicks said "a motive for the shooting remains under investigation."
Hicks described what responding officers found as an "exceptionally chaotic scene," with potentially hundreds of people in the area, and has said there is no longer any threat to the community.
That chaos is the most plausible explanation for the shifting count, and it is worth saying so rather than implying anyone misled anyone. In the hours after a shooting in a crowded parking lot, the number of injured is genuinely not known, and the people best placed to know it are busy.
A figure we are not printing
One account circulating attributes a count of seven injured to Palmer. We could not verify it against any source we trust, the outlet it is credited to is one we would not rely on for a casualty figure in any case, and the same ABC7 report that gives five acknowledges an unresolved reference to seven.
So we are publishing five, attributed, and telling you that a higher figure is in circulation and that we could not stand it up. If it is confirmed, we will say so.
Twin Falls is a city of about 56,000 people, roughly 128 miles southeast of Boise.
