Jose Juan Rangel and his wife, Maria Vargas Luna, pulled up to a McDonald’s drive-through nearly two years ago to order some food when they were approached by a person asking for change.
What is a common and usually uneventful interaction in Los Angeles turned into a bloody confrontation with tragic results.
According to a lawsuit filed by Rangel against McDonald’s last week, he and his wife were attacked by the man and McDonald’s employees failed to intervene or call for help. Luna later died from her injuries.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that on March 9, 2024, McDonald’s employees let Charles Cornelius Green Jr. approach vehicles at a McDonald’s drive-through on North Soto Street near Boyle Heights and ask for money.
Rangel is seeking unspecified damages.
Rangel claims Green was a “known vagrant” who “roamed freely around the exterior areas” of the restaurant and “remained in and around the drive-thru lane for at least ten minutes,” according to the lawsuit. Green approached vehicles and asked for money in front of the McDonald’s employees, who didn’t intervene or hire any security personnel for the restaurant, the suit says.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Green approached Rangel’s car and lunged at him, hitting him repeatedly in the face, according to the lawsuit. The McDonald’s employees saw what happened but didn’t call 911 or take any action to respond, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit states that Green also then tried to attack Rangel’s wife, Luna, who is partially blind and was sitting in the passenger seat of the car. Rangel says he got out of the car to protect her and Green wrestled him, hitting him and forcing him to the ground.
Luna got out of the car to try to help Rangel and that’s when, according to the lawsuit, Green pushed her to the ground, resulting in her head hitting the asphalt. Luna then went into cardiac arrest. She also suffered severe head trauma and brain damage, the suit states.
Law enforcement arrived only after Luna was already unconscious on the ground, according to the lawsuit.
She remained on life support for months before succumbing to her injuries, according to the suit.
Rangel alleges that the McDonald’s restaurant is in an area with “frequent criminal activity and frequent police responses.”
“Defendants had the means and responsibility to prevent this tragedy,” the lawsuit says, “but this business location is notorious in the community for ignoring the safety of its paying customers.”
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