A California man is taking McDonald’s to court after his wife was fatally assaulted in a Los Angeles drive-thru — and he says employees stood by and did nothing as the attack unfolded just feet from their windows.
Jose Juan Rangel and his wife, 58-year-old Maria Vargas Luna, pulled into a Boyle Heights McDonald’s on a March evening in 2024. It was supposed to be a quick meal. Instead, it became the last moments they would ever share together.
According to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, a homeless man described as a “known vagrant” had been wandering the property for several minutes, approaching cars and harassing customers. Rangel says employees saw it. Cameras caught it. But no one called for help.
Moments later, the man — identified by police as Charles Cornelius Green Jr. — allegedly lunged at Rangel through the driver-side window. When Vargas Luna tried to shield her husband, the lawsuit says she was shoved to the pavement, striking her head.
Her daughter, Veronica Rangel, remembers that day as the moment her family broke.
“My father keeps saying he can’t live without her,” she said in an interview. “They were married 30 years. She gave up her life trying to protect him. He feels guilty. He feels angry. He feels like his whole world disappeared in a single minute.”
Vargas Luna suffered catastrophic head trauma and, according to the family, went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. She remained on life support for months before dying from her injuries.
“She fought,” her grandson Will Cantabrana said. “But she never came back.”
The lawsuit alleges McDonald’s employees did nothing as Green wandered the drive-thru lane, pacing between cars and behaving aggressively for nearly 10 minutes.
“These visible warning signs required defendants to take protective action, but they did nothing,” the complaint states. “Their failure to recognize the danger and respond contributed directly to the injuries and death.”
Rangel’s attorneys say the Boyle Heights restaurant has been a magnet for crime for years. Police logs reportedly show repeated calls for trespassing, violence, and disturbances — something the legal team argues McDonald’s should have addressed long before the attack.
“This location had a history,” the complaint argues. “McDonald’s knew, and they ignored it.”
Green was initially hit with felony and misdemeanor battery charges. But prosecutors later dropped the felony count, claiming surveillance footage suggested Vargas Luna’s fall was not directly caused by an intentional blow.
That decision stunned the family.
“How can they watch the video and say this wasn’t violence?” Veronica said. “My mother died. What more do they need?”
Green was later released on his own recognizance. The status of any remaining misdemeanor charges remains unclear.
The Lawsuit
The suit accuses McDonald’s Corporation and multiple franchise entities of:
- Wrongful death
- Negligence
- Premises liability
It seeks compensatory damages and additional penalties.
Rangel says the case is not about money. It’s about accountability.
“We trusted that place,” he told relatives in court documents. “We never thought it would cost us her life.”
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Here’s the other side of this “unreal reality!” People (employees or bystanders) show up to help. Homeless man suffers injuries, real or unreal, and sues employees for allowing him to be attacked, Mc Donald’s because it was their employees and sues the by-standers who participated in the altercation (supposedly injuring the vagrant and those by-standers who just wanted and di nothing! There can be no winners in today’s litigious legal system. Only the lawyers win!!
Peop