DALLAS — Updated at 5:13 p.m. Tuesday with photos of one of the suspects.
Around 1:30 on Saturday afternoon, witnesses say three armed men entered Lulu's Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Oak Cliff.
Two families and employees were inside when they immediately realized they were in danger.
"I looked at my husband and said, 'We're not going home,'" customer Cecilia Ruiz said.
Sitting at a booth, a gun barreled down at Ruiz and her family. They listened to the robbers and quickly got to the ground.
Ruiz held her 3-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old son close as she watched the gunman turn his weapon to her husband's back.
"This is the day I'm going to lose the love of my life. This is it," she recalled thinking at the time.
Priscilla Cardiel, the owner's daughter, heard the commotion from the kitchen. "I went out to the front and I was met with a guy with a gun," said Cardiel. She was pushed back into the kitchen and her hands were zip-tied together.
She said all the customers were also tied up, and forced into the kitchen.
Then, Ruiz said the suspects took the three children back into the dining area at gunpoint, separated them from their parents, cursed at them to be quiet and duct-taped their hands.
All the while, Ruiz said she wondered where the other waitress was.
Marylou Cardiel, the waitress and the owner's younger daughter, stepped in the restroom right before the armed robbers entered. She called 911 with a whisper.
"I was trying to tell them to hurry, hurry," she said. "I gave them the address. I told them that I was a worker here, that I didn't know what was going on. I just heard kids crying and people screaming."
She peeked out of the restroom and saw a customer on the floor. Moments later, one of the men found her. "He had a gun to my face," Marylou Cardiel said. She remembers begging the man not to shoot her. "Then he bolted. He left."
Right then, Dallas police officers arrived. Witnesses say the three suspects forced their way out the back door. It only took police a few minutes to arrive.
"They left behind a bag with lighter fluid. I really don't know what their intentions were," said Priscilla Cardiel. She said the suspects left with around $200 from the register and personal belongings from customers and employees.
The Dallas Police Department confirms officers pulled up and saw multiple suspects leaving the scene. There was a brief foot chase, but the suspects still have not been arrested.
Police said the suspects drove away from the scene in an unknown model silver Toyota.
The case remains under investigation. If anyone has any information, contact Dallas Police Department Detective C. Shaklee, Badge No. 10230, by phone at 214-671-3660 or by email at cody.shaklee@dpd.ci.dallas.tx.us. Anonymous tipsters can call Crime Stoppers at 214-373-8477. Refer to case number 013593-2021.