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A California widower is suing McDonald’s, alleging employees stood by and refused to call 911 as a vagrant fatally attacked his wife while the couple waited in a drive-thru line.
Jose Juan Rangel filed the lawsuit last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Law & Crime reported. The suit claimed a man described as a “known vagrant” approached vehicles and then attacked the couple in the drive-thru at a Boyle Heights restaurant in March 2024.
Rangel and his wife, 58-year-old Maria Vargas Luna, were in their car waiting for food when Charles Cornelius Green Jr. allegedly approached and began assaulting Rangel through the driver-side window. The complaint says Rangel’s wife, who was partially blind and trying to help, was pushed to the ground and suffered severe head trauma.
The family previously told Fox News that Vargas Luna then suffered a heart attack while being rushed to the hospital.
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She was hospitalized and placed on life support for several months, though ultimately died from her injuries, according to the lawsuit.
“We’re all devastated because my father is beside himself, and he says he doesn’t want to keep living without her because she was his world,” Rangel’s daughter, Veronica Rangel, told “Fox & Friends First” in May 2024 when Vargas Luna was still on life support. “They’ve been married for 30 years, and all she did was give up her life trying to defend him, and my dad feels guilty. He feels sad. He feels angry. He feels like he’s losing his life partner, his best friend, for something that should never have happened.”
The lawsuit accuses McDonald’s Corp., McDonald’s Restaurants of California Inc., McDonald’s USA LLC and the franchise operators of failing to act despite visible warning signs of danger. It alleges employees watched Green loiter and approach cars in the drive-thru for at least 10 minutes and then failed to call 911 or intervene as the assault unfolded.
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“These visible warning signs required defendants to take protective action, but they did nothing,” the complaint says. “Defendants’ failure to … recognize the danger and respond before the assault occurred directly contributed to the injuries and death.”
Rangel’s attorneys say the location has a long history of police calls for violent and criminal behavior, including assault and trespassing, which they say put McDonald’s on notice of the risk. The complaint asserts claims including wrongful death, negligence and premises liability, and seeks compensatory and other damages.
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Green was initially charged with felony and misdemeanor battery, but prosecutors later dropped the serious count, saying surveillance video suggested Vargas Luna’s fall was accidental, FOX11 Los Angeles reported.
Green was released on his own recognizance, and the status of any misdemeanor charges is unclear.
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