A Houston Jack in the Box employee allegedly shot a customer who was driving a car during an argument allegedly over curly fries, the lawsuit alleges. On Tuesday, the attorney for the customer, Anthony Ramos, released a video of the reported incident.
Attorney Randall L. Kallinen filed a lawsuit against the fast food restaurant and employee Alonnie Fantasia Ford in 2022, KTRK reports. Kallinen obtained the 23-minute video of the dispute through a discovery request, according to KTRK.
“Jack in the Box needs to do its research on potential employees,” Kallinen told PEOPLE. “As in this example, Ms. Ford pled guilty to making a terroristic threat, which was public record in Harris County. Also, the manager should have de-escalated the situation. It appeared on the tape that the manager did nothing to tell the employee to go back or that they would take care of it, and he let the situation escalate.”
The lawsuit follows an incident on March 3, 2021, when Florida residents Ramos, his pregnant wife Jeraldin Ospina and their 6-year-old daughter ordered two combo meals at a Jack in the Box restaurant near Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. They claim that an employee shot at them.
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Ramos picked up his family from the airport when they visited the restaurant. After ordering their meals, they said the curly fries were missing. Their request for the missing food allegedly sparked an argument.
Kallinen explained to PEOPLE that as the incident escalated, Ramos asked for a manager, prompting Ford to leave the window and fetch his manager.
Ford was seen throwing ice packs and ketchup at the Ramos family. Shortly after, Ford was seen walking away from the window, but when she returned, she grabbed a gun from her pocket, according to the video.
Ford quickly opened and leaned through the drive-through window, then allegedly fired shots at the red truck.
After the Ramos family rushed to safety, they contacted 9-1-1, which dispatched officers to the scene. The video allegedly shows Ford cleaning up, including putting the gun away before police arrive.
After the incident, Ramos quit his contract job and returned to Florida.
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Before she was hired at Jack in the Box, Ford was charged and pleaded guilty to making a terroristic threat in 2012, Kallinen told PEOPLE.
“Jack in the Box has to do background checks on employees so they don’t expose their customers to someone who would try to kill them,” Kallinen said in a press release, as reported by CBS Austin.
Following the recent revelation that Ford had previously been charged and pleaded guilty, an attorney for the Ramos family said the restaurant chain must review its surveillance policies in an effort to keep customers safe.
“They may have a policy, but they have to implement it. It’s one thing to have a policy and write something on a piece of paper, and it’s another thing to monitor and check, obviously, they didn’t do that,” Kallinen said at a press conference, according to NBC-2.
“We’re here today once again to get Jack in the box, to protect our customers from people who shoot and kill them,” Kallinen added. “These cases of rage are getting out of hand in Houston.”
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Ford was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of deadly conduct. Ford then received a one-year deferred adjudication sentence, which she served in June, court records show.
Ford later told KTRK on Tuesday that she is “not an angry person” and “not a crazy monster here. I’m just a woman trying to work for my family.” She also claimed that the gun did not go off. There was no sound on the video Kallinen posted, but Houston police found a spent shell casing, according to court documents, KTRK reports. Ford claims that Ramos called her racist insults, which he denies, the paper reports.
“The full investigation of the facts that we conducted led the District Attorney’s Office to realize deficiencies in their case based on facts that had not previously been reported,” Ford’s criminal defense attorney, Daniel Werlinger, told KTRK.
A Jack in the Box spokesperson also told KTRK, “While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we are aware of the situation involving an employee of one of our independent franchisees and remain focused on providing a safe environment for customers and restaurant workers .”
The lawsuit alleges assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence on the part of Ford as an employee of Jack in the Box, and negligence on the part of Jack in the Box in the employment of Ford. The family is seeking unspecified damages.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in Houston in November, according to the Harris County District Clerk’s office, MySanAntonio reports.
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