Oregon father shot in the head at In-N-Out drive-thru drove his family to safety — two suspects now in custody

A 28-year-old father took a bullet to the head while pulling out of an In-N-Out drive-thru in Keizer, Oregon, with his wife and two young sons in the car, then drove them to the hospital himself. Three months later, police have arrested two suspects and are hunting a third they call armed and dangerous.

Marcio Garcia was leaving the burger chain on Feb. 9 when gunfire shattered his car windows and struck him in the head. His children, ages 2 and 7, were in the back seat. His wife was beside him. Somehow, with a bullet lodged in his skull, Garcia put the car in gear and got his family out.

Fox News Digital reported that Keizer police took Ethan Adrian Armenta-Lagunas, 20, and Gabriel “Alex” Javier, 18, into custody on Wednesday. Both men are from Salem. They face charges of first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, criminal mischief, and recklessly endangering another person. A third suspect, 22-year-old Anthony Taylor-Manriquez, remains at large.

A father’s instinct under fire

Garcia’s wife described the moment in an online fundraiser. Her words say more than any summary could.

“In the middle of chaos and fear, while he was injured and in pain, he somehow found the strength to drive us out of the scene to safety. He protected our family before thinking of himself. That is the kind of man and father he is.”

Garcia drove himself to a hospital, the name of which has not been released, with the bullet still in his head. Surgeons later removed it. Images posted online showed the extracted round and the family car riddled with bullet holes.

His wife said Garcia did not suffer major brain damage. She called his survival what most people would call it.

“The doctors told us what we already believe, this is nothing short of a miracle. Now he faces a long road of rest, healing, and recovery.”

Garcia is now recovering at home. His wife and children were physically uninjured in the attack.

Two arrested, one still loose

The Keizer Police Department said officers found multiple guns at Armenta-Lagunas’ apartment. Javier was taken into custody earlier Wednesday and formally arrested later in the day. Both suspects are being held on the same set of charges.

Police have not publicly identified a motive for the shooting. No explanation has been offered for why rounds tore through a family’s car at a fast-food restaurant on a February evening. That gap matters, and it remains one of several open questions in the case, including what specific evidence ties each suspect to the scene.

The third suspect, Taylor-Manriquez, is 22 years old. Breitbart reported that police are urging the public to consider him armed and dangerous. That outlet also noted that another person outside Garcia’s car was shot in the leg during the incident, a detail that underscores the indiscriminate nature of the gunfire.

The case is a reminder that violent crime does not confine itself to dark alleys or late-night confrontations. It finds families in drive-thru lanes. It finds toddlers buckled into car seats. And when it does, the people who bear the consequences are rarely the ones making policy.

Charges and accountability

Armenta-Lagunas and Javier each face first-degree assault charges, a serious felony in Oregon. The additional counts of unlawful use of a weapon and recklessly endangering another person reflect the broad danger the gunfire posed. Garcia’s two children were feet away from where the bullet entered their father’s head.

Booking details and court case numbers have not been made public. It remains unclear whether either suspect has retained counsel or entered a plea. The New York Post confirmed the same core details: two arrests, one suspect at large, and a father who refused to stop driving until his family was safe.

Whether the justice system treats these charges with the gravity they deserve is now the question. Oregon’s criminal justice record in recent years has not inspired confidence among residents who want violent offenders held accountable. Prosecutors will have to decide whether to pursue the maximum penalties, or whether plea deals quietly reduce the consequences for men who allegedly fired into a car carrying a two-year-old.

Cases like this one test whether the system works for the people it is supposed to protect. Across the country, violent assault cases have drawn national scrutiny precisely because the public wants to see consequences match the crime.

A community left waiting

Keizer is a small city just north of Salem, the state capital. It is not a place where residents expect gunfire at a burger joint. The Feb. 9 shooting rattled the community, and the three-month gap between the attack and the first arrests only deepened the unease.

Police have not said what led them to Armenta-Lagunas and Javier this week. The discovery of multiple firearms at Armenta-Lagunas’ apartment suggests investigators had enough to move on, but the public record remains thin. The search for Taylor-Manriquez continues.

For Garcia’s family, the road ahead is long. A bullet was removed from his skull. He survived. His children survived. But “miracle” is a word that should never have been necessary to describe a trip through a drive-thru.

Law enforcement officers who tracked these suspects for months deserve credit for the arrests. Police work like this matters, especially when the political class is often more interested in second-guessing officers than supporting them.

The broader pattern is familiar. Young suspects, firearms, reckless disregard for innocent life, and a family left to pick up the pieces. Garcia’s wife set up a fundraiser to help cover medical costs. That a man can be shot in the head while buying dinner for his kids and then need to crowdfund his recovery tells you something about what ordinary Americans are up against.

Cold-case breakthroughs and delayed arrests remind us that justice sometimes takes time, but it must still arrive. For the Garcia family, two arrests are a start. The third suspect is still out there.

And the question that hangs over every case like this one remains: will the system that caught these men actually hold them accountable? Or will it find a way, as it so often does, to let dangerous people walk before the damage is even fully measured?

Marcio Garcia drove his family to safety with a bullet in his head. The least the justice system can do is finish the job he started.