Nevada City, CA — A local tweaker, identified as 27-year-old Jason Wayne Galbraith, reportedly stormed into a local taco restaurant this morning while firing shots through the front door and windows with a semi-automatic 9mm handgun. He was wearing a “wife-beater” and a nice hand-tooled leather holster. And jeans and boots. He reportedly fired at least 12 shots directly into the place when entering. A move many witnesses say was, “just plain rude.”
One man put a stop to this tweaked out gunman’s rampage.
22-year-old Umberto Lopez, an illegal immigrant, pulled out a Walther PPQ 45 pistol and shot and disarmed the tweaker’s shooting hand before anyone else got hurt. He then jumped on the tweaker and pinned him down to the floor until police arrived, to the applause of those present.
“That guy is an angel sent from God,” exclaimed a breathless Julie Gatz. “I was just sitting down to drink my chai mocha when this guy comes blasting through the front doors. I thought he was running from the firecrackers outside. It turns out there were no firecrackers…the guy was firing shots at all of us,” said Gatz as she gestured around at the visibly shaken witnesses. “The guy that took that tweaker down, he is truly a hero.”
“I don’t feel like I’m a hero,” Lopez told the Broad Street Beacon as we drove him back to his North San Juan home. “I was just eating my pesto and garlic pastry, I think is what it was, when this guy comes in yelling for everybody to get down on the floor and to keep their hands up. He’s waving his gun around with his finger on the trigger, and he had a good shooting stance considering the stressful circumstances. People were hitting the floor but still trying to keep their hands up at the same time. I had the gun and knew I could prevent some harm to others. I am sorry that he may lose his meth-cutting hand, but, you know, it might do him some good in the end.”
Umberto Lopez goes on to explain how he was worried he was going to be arrested.
“I am in America illegally, and I don’t even know whose gun this is,” he says, showing me the rather beautiful gun he used to stop the robbery. “I also reek of marijuana. That’s why I’m up here illegally from my home in Mexico. To trim the harvest.”
When I told him that made him a trimmigrant, he laughed.
“That is funny. No, I never heard that before, but I’m going to use it.”
As to Lopez getting arrested, there was not a chance in hell of that happening. He was a bad guy with a gun that stopped a worse guy with a gun. He was hailed as a hero by all the patrons, staff, and Nevada City Police. Let’s face it, the robber was a tweaker who was firing shots already as he entered the establishment. Who cares who stopped him? Who cares where he got the illegal gun?
Sheriff Keith Royal has told the Beacon that Galbraith will be booked into Wayne Brown Correctional Facility on charges of attempted armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and one probation violation related to distribution and possession of methamphetamine.
A plaque commemorating Umberto Lopez, his heroism, and life-saving actions will be posted on one of the historic brick walls along Commercial Street.
