Inset: Luis Armondo Diaz Mendez (Bexar County Jail). Background: The pub where Diaz Mendez allegedly threatened to kill people in San Antonio, Tex. (Google Maps).
A Texas man has been arrested and is facing charges after allegedly threatening to commit multiple murders at a specified location and time, while bizarrely offering flowers purportedly for the victims’ memorials, according to Texas law enforcement.
Authorities have charged Luis Armondo Diaz Mendez, 34, with making a terroristic threat intended to incite significant public fear, as reported by the San Antonio Police Department.
This alarming sequence of events began in the early hours of New Year’s Eve at The Ringer Pub, located on Thousand Oaks Drive in San Antonio’s Oak Hollow neighborhood. The trouble started when Diaz Mendez was initially ejected from the establishment around 1 a.m. after causing a disturbance, and he was subsequently banned from the premises, according to an arrest affidavit referenced by San Antonio’s ABC affiliate KSAT.
Despite the ban, Diaz Mendez returned later that same day, this time bearing a peculiar offering. Around 1:30 p.m., surveillance footage reportedly captured him coming back to the pub with a bouquet of flowers. He then approached an employee near the bar, placed the flowers down, and ominously stated, “These are for you.”
But Diaz Mendez returned, with a gift of sorts, police say.
Around 1:30 p.m. that same day, the defendant came back with a “bouquet of flowers” in hand, according to surveillance footage cited by the affidavit. Then, he allegedly approached a worker near the bar area, placed the bouquet down, and said: “These are for you.”
Next, Diaz Mendez asked the employee if the pub had his black iPhone that he left while being kicked out. After retrieving the digital device, he was told “he needed to leave the premises,” police said.
But the defendant allegedly responded with a chilling question.
“You don’t work Tuesdays, do you?” Diaz Mendez allegedly asked.
As the woman began to respond, Diaz Mendez allegedly interrupted to say: “Stay away from it. Stay away from next Tuesday night.”
Again, the worker told the defendant to leave and that he should “stay away from the location,” police said. This suggestion, however, apparently infuriated Diaz Mendez. The woman said he picked up the bouquet and then flung it back down onto the bar.
Then came a harrowing clarification, law enforcement said.
“Those are flowers for the people about to get murdered,” Diaz Mendez allegedly said as the petals shook and he finally left the pub.
The worker then called 911 and reported that she feared for her safety and her co-workers’ safety due to the defendant’s words, according to an arrest report obtained by local NBC affiliate WOAI.
The worker who called police later identified Diaz Mendez from a photograph, authorities say. The defendant was subsequently arrested over the weekend and booked into jail the next day.
Diaz Mendez is currently being detained in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on $30,000 bond. In the event the defendant is able to post bond, he will be placed on house arrest, court records show.
