New details have emerged after a man threatened workers and patrons with a gun last week at a Lowe’s hardware store in Pharr.
According to a criminal complaint, Pharr police responded to the Lowe’s at 707 South Jackson Road at 1:48 p.m. Thursday following reports that a man had brandished a gun and was making threats.
When police arrived, they spoke to several employees who had seen the suspect, later identified as 27-year-old John Anthony Cuellar, making threats with a black handgun.
One of them told police that he’d been near the checkout counters when he heard Cuellar say that “he was going to start shooting (people) and he feared for his life,” a probable cause affidavit against Cuellar said.
The employee told police that he saw the butt of a handgun on Cuellar’s waistline.
Another employee who also witnessed the threats told police “that he then feared for his life by the comments made by the defendant and began evacuating people.”
Police also made contact with one of the managers who told police that he’d been in the store’s garden center when he was informed via phone call that an individual was threatening the cashiers.
The manager told police that “when he walked to the front of the store, he immediately noticed that there were no cashiers,” the complaint read.
The manager told police that it was at this time that he saw the suspect standing near the area where returns are made. Cuellar reportedly pointed a black handgun at the manager and told him to leave the store.
Police were able to take Cuellar into custody without incident and no injuries were reported.
Cuellar, who has a history of violence according to the Hidalgo County jail records, was charged with one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of making a terroristic threat causing fear or imminent serious bodily injury.
He remained jailed Wednesday on a total of $104,000 in bonds, records show.
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