Denny's Employee Describes Restaurant's Encounter With Triple Murder Suspect
ROCKLIN (CBS13) - Employees at a Denny's restaurant in Rocklin thought 19-year-old Grigoriy Bukhantsov was acting strangely when he came in early Wednesday morning, but they had no idea they were serving the man suspected of viciously killed three family members just hours earlier.
Investigators say after 19-year-old Grigoriy Bukhantsov brutally murdered his sister-in-law and young niece and nephew Tuesday afternoon in Rancho Cordova. They say he stole their minivan and made a stop at Denny's and ordered some food.
Judy Kregness, who has been working at the Denny's for 15 years, says her co-worker told her he was acting very strange.
"He was very rude," she said. "He was agitated and rude. So the server thought he was actually going to dine and dash. So he kept watching him, had the cook watch him, stuff like that."
As soon as his food was ordered, Bukhantsov fell asleep.
"So then he fell asleep and he (the server) got the vacuum out and came up and vacuumed by him and clapped some dishes by him, but he was out cold," Kregness said.
Still not knowing he was wanted for triple murder, the server became suspicious.
"The server got the license plate of the car but he had no idea what was going on," Kregness said.
Denny's employees told CBS13 that a Rocklin police officer patrolling the parking lot spotted the van.
"And then all of a sudden one patrol car came through, and all of a sudden more came through, and then he says it looked like 30 cars came in and they were all patrol cars," Kregness said.
The employees were ordered out. Bukhantsov was still sleep but the SWAT team wasn't sure.
"They didn't know if he was truly sleeping or whether he was still armed," Kregness said.
They pounced.
"Well, they just grabbed him this way and threw him to the floor," Kregness said.
Other employees were shocked to know such a wanted man was in their midst.
"It hits home for me, having a little boy," Joe Felipe said. "It's just sad."
