Man who brandished gun in Las Vegas Target was barred under state law from owning firearm

Ed Komenda | Reno Gazette-Journal

HENDERSON – The man police say brandished a gun at Target on Halloween and frightened customers to flee the store had a pair of domestic battery convictions on his record that barred him from having a firearm.

Gregory Munoz, 55, stands charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon after the incident unfolded at the shopping center near Horizon Ridge and Green Valley.

The Henderson man also has two domestic battery convictions in 2008 and 2010. Federal law and state law prohibits convicted domestic abusers from having guns.

Munoz's arrest comes at a time when cities in Southern Nevada are debating whether convicted domestic abusers should have their gun rights taken.

The cities of Henderson and Las Vegas this year passed ordinances that create a misdemeanor domestic violence offense that doesn’t require defendants who are found guilty to give up their guns.

The ordinances are not retroactive and do not apply to people with past domestic battery convictions like Munoz, according to Las Vegas attorney John Watkins, of Pariente Law Firm.

Jail records show Munoz was in custody at the Henderson Detention Center Thursday in lieu of $10,000 bail. Authorities were not available Friday morning to confirm whether he has been released.

The parking lot spat

Munoz landed in jail Thursday after witnesses told police he pointed a gun at a man twice – once in the parking lot and once inside Target.

Around 11 a.m., Henderson Police responded to a report that a man pulled a gun during a road rage incident in the Target parking lot.

Ed Smith, a 76-year-old business broker who visits Target to shop and get exercise walking five times around the store, witnessed Munoz and an unidentified retired police officer get into an argument.

Munoz allegedly jumped out of his burgundy pickup truck with a semi-automatic pistol – "it looked like a 9 millimeter Glock," Smith said – and pointed it at the man's chest.

"They started arguing over who's going to shoot who and all this other stuff," Smith told the USA TODAY Network.

Customers flee Target

Eventually, the armed man followed the retired police officer into the store, Smith said.

Within seconds, someone yelled: "He's got a gun! Run!"

"I grabbed my baby, I grabbed my bag, and I ran straight to the back and went out the back door," said Melissa Ginsberg, a Henderson mother standing in the check-out line at the time. "There was a bunch of other people out there already. There was a bunch of moms with strollers, other moms with their baby carriers and little cute old ladies, and we all just kind of hid behind the storage containers behind the store."

Smith had entered Target and walked toward the Starbucks. A few steps behind him followed the retired cop who had the gun pointed at his chest.

And behind him stood the man with the gun.

"He's hollering at the helping man again and has his gun drawn – he's probably six feet away," Smith said.

The witness considered going for his own concealed gun. But Munoz quickly holstered his weapon and ran, he said.

Smith called the retired cop who stood between the gun and Target shoppers "heroic."

"He didn't duck down and try to run away," he said. "He was going to take the shot."

Contributing: The Associated Press.

Ed Komenda writes about Las Vegas for the Reno Gazette Journal and USA Today Network. Do you care about democracy? Then support local journalism by subscribing to the Reno Gazette Journal right here .