Dad takes 3 kids to Jack in the Box drive-thru, aims rifle at worker, N.M. cops say
A New Mexico man aimed a rifle at a Jack in the Box worker last week when he went to the restaurant to yell at his girlfriend — and he brought his three little kids with him, police said.
Ruben Sanchez, a 31-year-old convicted felon from Radium Springs, showed up at the Las Cruces fast-food restaurant around 7 p.m. on July 5, police said in a Facebook post on Monday. Sanchez was wearing a bullet-proof vest and toting a .22 caliber rifle, according to police. His children — a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 7-month-old — were in the car he drove.
While at the restaurant, Sanchez yelled at his girlfriend who worked there, prompting an employee to leave the Jack in the Box and see why Sanchez was there — which is when Sanchez pointed the gun at the employee, according to police.
Less than a minute later, a Las Cruces police officer responded and discovered Sanchez “behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Eclipse that was in the drive-thru lane,” police said.
“Sanchez’s three kids were in the backseat of the vehicle and the .22 caliber rifle was (lying) between the front and back seats, pointing toward where the children were sitting,” police wrote in the Facebook post, adding that one round was in the gun’s chamber. “A 30-round magazine for the rifle was discovered in a diaper bag and a bullet-proof vest was recovered from the vehicle.”
Sanchez was arrested on charges of child abuse, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to police.
The rifle had been reported stolen last year.
“He could have fired at somebody,” police spokesman Dan Trujillo said, according to KVIA. “The gun could have gone off — injured one of the kids.”
Sanchez was booked at the Doña Ana County Detention Center on July 6 and released the same day, police said.
Sanchez was arrested earlier this year after the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department accused him of armed robbery at an Anthony, Texas, pawn shop and stealing a pair of horses in May. Those stolen horses were ultimately found near Odessa in Midland County, Texas, according to the Sheriff’s Department. A viral Facebook post about the stolen horses helped link Sanchez to the theft, KFOX14 reported.
Sanchez was also arrested in January after police said an apparently drunk Sanchez accused his girlfriend of cheating and then grabbed her in a choke-hold while she held their then-2-month-old child, KFOX14 reported.
“During the investigation, police said two pit bulls were being held in a small cage with no food or water,” the TV station reported. “Police said the dogs were unable to move freely and one of the dogs had a fresh injury on its head.”
