SoCal In-N-Out worker survives Idaho gunman’s killing spree, her harrowing call to parents emerges

A Southern California woman at an Idaho In-N-Out Burger location during Saturday’s mass shooting tearfully told her parents, “I’m alive,” after escaping the gunfire.

The 24-year-old West Covina resident had traveled to Twin Falls as part of an “all-star team” brought in to train new associates ahead of the restaurant’s opening when a gunman opened fire around 2:30 p.m. local time, CBS Los Angeles reported.

Her parents, Nikki and Micheal Ahern, said they first learned of the shooting through a news alert on the Citizen app.

Knowing their daughter was inside the restaurant, they desperately waited for a call that never came because she had fled the scene without her phone.

She was eventually able to contact them using a friend’s cellphone.

“All she could get out [on the initial phone call] was ‘mommy, mommy, mommy,’ crying, ‘mommy, I’m alive,’” Nikki Ahern told CBS.

Micheal Ahern said he asked whether police had arrived and if his daughter was safe. She told him she was, but also revealed that one of her co-workers had been shot.

The Twin Falls Police Department said 24-year-old Chad Williams opened fire inside the restaurant, killing three people and wounding seven others before fatally shooting himself.

In-N-Out president Lynsi Snyder later confirmed that one of the employees killed was a female worker.

The Aherns described the wait to hear from their daughter as agonizing.

“It took a long time for clarification,” Nikki Ahern said. “[It felt like] being powerless.”

The family also questioned why In-N-Out did not notify emergency contacts while the shooting was unfolding.

“There’s got to be a protocol,” Micheal Ahern said. “Like, you have an emergency contact list, right?”

The Aherns told the outlet their daughter is currently without a cell phone and expected to return to Southern California on Monday.

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