Jorge Arbaiza, 61, was buying Happy Meals for his grandkids when the gunfire started. He was shot and taken to the Medical Center, where he died.
HOUSTON — We’re hearing from a heartbroken son whose father was killed after getting into the crossfire of a shootout between two groups of young people inside a Katy-area McDonald’s last weekend.
Jorge Arbaiza, 61, was simply buying Happy Meals for his grandkids when that shooting happened. Arbaiza’s son, also named Jorge, is still trying to comprehend what happened that day. His life was changed forever the moment he got the call from his mom, who was waiting in the car with her two grandkids in that McDonald’s parking lot.
“She tells me, ‘Your dad is inside. There was gunfire. He hasn’t come out. The kids are here. They’re crying. They’re in the car,’” he said.
Jorge’s father had walked into the McDonald’s to order Happy Meals for his 4- and 6-year-old grandkids because the drive through line was too long. While he waited inside, a white vehicle pulled up outside of the restaurant and a man got out with a gun and started shooting through the windows.
“And she says, ‘I called him. He answered and he told me that that he was dying, that he was gonna die,’” Jorge said. “And that phone call was 26 seconds and that’s the last time that she ever spoke to him or heard his voice in life.”
Jorge Arbaiza was taken by Life Flight to the Texas Medical Center, where he died hours later. The suspect, who’s been identified as 24-year-old Antoine Ridge, was on bond the day of the shooting for allegedly threatening his ex-girlfriend with a gun. His bond conditions included GPS monitoring, and he wasn’t allowed to use or possess firearms.
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“On a Sunday afternoon, pure recklessness, you know, just self-centered, right, not thinking about anybody but themselves,” Jorge said.
Ridge did not appear in court for his probable cause hearing. His bond has been set at $1 million.
What started as a beautiful Sunday afternoon with the grandkids turned into a tragedy that has changed the lives of a family forever. A wife who’d been married for 39 years will spend her 40th anniversary without her husband. The grandchildren who played with their ‘Toti’ in the front yard among the azaleas he planted years before will never get to see him again.