Deadly Dozen

Lore & Background

Deadly Dozen was released in 2001 and developed by nFusion Interactive. Its title and premise draw directly from the film The Dirty Dozen, featuring military misfits sentenced to death or long term imprisonment who are given dangerous missions to redeem themselves. The game's twelve characters each have different specializations, such as sniper and demolition expert, and for every mission the player selects four of them from the European theater.

The game received mixed reviews upon release, holding a score of 56/100 on Metacritic and 61.33% on GameRankings. It was followed by a sequel titled Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater.

In July 2013, Tommo purchased many assets from Atari during their bankruptcy sale, including Deadly Dozen. The company later re-released it on Steam under their 'Retroism' brand in 2015. By March 2020, ownership of the title was transferred to Ziggurat Interactive, who currently publish the game. In January 2022, Ziggurat Interactive announced Deadly Dozen Reloaded, a remaster for PCs and consoles, released for PC via Steam and GOG.com in April 2022, with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions released later that year.

Reader's Guide

Deadly Dozen is notable as a squad-based first-person shooter set in World War II, drawing its narrative structure from the classic film The Dirty Dozen. Its mixed critical reception, reflected in a Metacritic score of 56/100 and a GameRankings score of 61.33%, indicates a game that was neither widely praised nor condemned. The game's legacy includes a sequel, Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater, and a later remaster titled Deadly Dozen Reloaded, released in 2022. The title's ownership history is also significant: after Atari's bankruptcy sale in July 2013, Tommo acquired the rights and re-released it on Steam in 2015 under the Retroism brand. In March 2020, ownership transferred to Ziggurat Interactive, who currently publish the game and produced the remaster. This chain of ownership and re-release highlights the game's enduring, if niche, presence in the shooter genre.

Did You Know?

• The game's title refers to the famous World War II film The Dirty Dozen.
• A remaster, Deadly Dozen Reloaded, was released for PC in April 2022 and for consoles later that year.

The Drive-Through Attack

At approximately 2:29 in the afternoon on August 1, 2026, the first emergency calls reached Twin Falls police, reporting an active shooter at a newly opened In-N-Out Burger. Twenty-four-year-old Chad Williams had pulled his vehicle to the payment window and killed employee Ashley Garibay with a handgun. He then advanced down the drive-through lane and fatally shot Christopher Claunch, who had been sitting in a separate car. A former officer and state trooper, Austin Scott James, rushed toward the scene and was shot and wounded before bystanders pulled him back. Williams returned to the window, firing at staff who were tending to Garibay, until his pistol jammed. He retrieved a rifle from his car, and the confrontation with off-duty trooper Steve McClain escalated into a brief exchange of gunfire. After striking a bystander in the abdomen and sweeping toward Blue Lakes Boulevard North, Williams opened fire on cars stopped at a red light, wounding two sisters-in-law—one in the face, the other six months pregnant. He then ran to a Tesla charging station, where he fatally shot Dale Schultz and injured Schultz's wife inside a parked vehicle.

Ordinary People in the Line of Fire

The hours around the Twin Falls shooting were shaped as much by the actions of untrained civilians as by the gunman himself. Steve McClain, an off-duty Idaho state trooper who happened to be inside the restaurant, moved past panicking employees to confront Williams at the payment window, trading shots until the attacker retreated. Jordan Salinas, who had arrived with his girlfriend after the gunfire began, spotted Williams near the drive-through and fired with a suppressed FN Five-seven pistol—action police later credited with preventing further casualties. At the visitor center, tour guide Gabrielle Burton initially mistook the shots for fireworks, then quickly herded roughly three dozen guests away from windows and into a locked back hallway. On Canyon Rim Trail, seventeen-year-old Dick's Sporting Goods employee Braxton Stuebe, who had just evacuated patrons through the store's rear, approached Williams and pleaded with him to stop, even invoking his own family. Each of these individuals acted without training or authority, and each intervention altered the trajectory of the attack.

A New Restaurant in a Regional Hub

The In-N-Out Burger at the center of the August 2026 attack had been open for exactly one week. The company's 441st restaurant and fourth location in Idaho, it occupied a former Outback Steakhouse site in Twin Falls' north-side commercial corridor, an area dense with hotels, chain stores, and eateries drawing both locals and travelers. The Twin Falls City Council had approved the building permits in the fall of 2024, and construction took place during 2025 as part of In-N-Out's broader push into the state. Twin Falls itself sits roughly 130 miles southeast of Boise and functions as a commercial and social anchor for much of southern Idaho. The combination of a brand-new establishment, a high-traffic retail strip, and the city's role as a regional destination meant the restaurant was already drawing a steady stream of customers on the day of the shooting. Authorities have not yet determined a motive, and the investigation into why Williams targeted that specific location remains ongoing.

The Canyon Trail and the End

After killing Dale Schultz and wounding his wife at the Tesla charging station, Williams walked toward the Twin Falls Visitor Center, where about three dozen people were sheltering. Tour guide Gabrielle Burton had already secured the building's back hallway, and Williams passed a stagecoach where one person was hiding without spotting them. At the rear wall he found an emergency exit opening onto Canyon Rim Trail and slipped outside. There he ran into two Dick's Sporting Goods employees, including seventeen-year-old Braxton Stuebe, who had been evacuating customers. Stuebe tried to talk Williams down, begging him to stop and referencing his family. A confrontation with an employee from a nearby store followed, and Williams was eventually located by responding officers while hiding near the rim of a canyon along the walking trail. There, he took his own life. The first officer on scene had been directed to Williams' position by McClain, and the pursuit that closed the gap between the restaurant and the trail edge lasted only minutes. Three lives were lost that afternoon; seven more were wounded.