Texas authorities have released video showing the moment a fast-food worker drew a gun and fired through the drive-thru window into a car containing a pregnant woman, in a dispute over curly fries.
CCTV footage from inside the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant shows employee Alonniea Ford draw the gun and fire at the vehicle as it drives away during the incident in March 2021.
It followed an argument with the driver of the vehicle, Anthony Ramos, who had just picked up his pregnant wife from the airport, along with their daughter.
In the video, Ford, who has since pleaded guilty to the criminal charge of deadly conduct, checks the weapon which was stashed in her back pocket.
Minutes later, while another employee is present, she hurls packets of ketchup through the window towards the Ramos family before pulling out the gun and firing it.
Ford has also previously pleaded guilty to charges of theft in 2010, and terroristic threat in 2012, prior to her employment at Jack-In-The-Box.
Randall L Kallinen, attorney for the family said that “rage cases” were “getting out of hand” in Houston.
"Jack-In-The-Box needs to do background checks on employees so as not to expose their customers to someone who would attempt to kill them," he said in a statement shared with The Independent.
In separate remarks at a press conference, Mr Kallinen said the family is suing Jack-In-The-Box, and that they had not been offered any support since the incident.
“This was a dispute over curly fries,” he said.
“Jack-In-The-Box is known for having tasty curly fries, and Mr Ramos said ‘hey, let’s stop here for something to eat’.
“Mr Ramos said to his wife, ‘you should try these curly fries because they’re very tasty’. And so when they didn’t get the curly fries, they said ‘we would liked the curly fries’.
“That was one of the reasons there’s not there wasn’t a small deal. But they wouldn’t give them the curly fries and they had plenty of time to do it. They didn’t say oh, sorry. We ran out of curly fries. They wouldn’t give them to them.
CCTV footage of the 2021 Houston drive-thru incident— (Randall Kallinen, Ramos family attorney)
“What kind of place, when you’ve spent $13 for a meal, then you can’t switch out your regular flies for curly fries, even if they were incorrect.”
Mr Kallinen continued: “I know that if I would have been almost murdered, it would bother me to this very day, and it bothers this young family to this very day,” he said.
“This is a young family just trying to get their family off the ground. And Jack-In-The-Box doesn’t care, because they hired people who have pleaded guilty to terroristic threat.”
In his own remarks, Mr Ramos said he could tell that Ford was “having a bad day” before the situation had escalated.
“We’re here today to get Jack-In-The-Box to make their customers safe from people shooting them and killing them.”
He added that he would never be returning to a Jack-In-The-Box restaurant.
A spokesperson for Jack-In-The-Box told The Independent: “While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we are aware of the 2021 incident involving an employee of one of our independent franchisees and remain focused on providing a safe environment for restaurant workers and customers.”
