A Houston grandfather was killed in a violent shootout at a McDonald’s while buying Happy Meals for his two grandchildren.
Jorge Arbaiza, 61, walked into the burger joint in a commercial area of the city to pick up the meals when two groups inside the restaurant got into a fight and began shooting at each other. Arbaiza was fatally struck by a bullet while inside.
His wife, Teresa, was waiting for him in the parking lot with the two grandkids. She called her husband when she noticed people pouring out of the restaurant and didn’t see him.
She’d seen a man with a gun in her rearview mirror shortly before she heard gunshots, KHOU 11 reported.
Arbaiza picked up the phone to tell his wife he had been shot.
“‘I’m dying, I’m going to die,'” he told her. The two had been married for 39 years.
“I couldn’t leave the kids alone — I could not go inside — the kids were crying, and they were scared,” she told the TV station. Arbaiza was transported to an area hospital for treatment but ultimately succumbed to his injuries. A 25-year-old man who was part of the fight was also shot but is expected to survive.
“He was crazy for his grandkids,” Teresa said of her husband.
A police investigation is ongoing. Detectives are searching for a group of young men and women involved in the shooting who left the restaurant in a maroon SUV. Another group was in a white sedan.
Investigators and a K-9 team returned to the scene on Monday to search for evidence.
“All I want is justice,” Arbaiza’s sister-in-law Zoila Garcia told KHOU 11. “So they can grab them and they can pay for what they did — it’s so unjust.”
