Marana businessman John Kai Jr. is a changed man.
Nightmares disturb his sleep and sometimes he wakes up from the images of reliving the moments he was shot twice — bullets piercing his chest and head on the morning of May 4. The injuries resulted in the loss of his right eye.
A former disgruntled employee, Ruben Duran Muñoz, 63, was indicted on two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault with serious physical injury and burglary.
A long healing journey lies ahead for Kai, in which he faces more surgeries and counseling for his post-traumatic stress disorder.
In an interview Wednesday, Kai, 69, recalled the traumatic events that occurred when he was at work at Kai Enterprises, 6088 W. Arizona Pavilions Drive, near Interstate 10 and North Cortaro Road.
It had been years, said Kai, since he had seen Muñoz, a former employee who worked mostly on Kai’s cotton operations in Marana, which at one time sprawled over more than 5,000 acres. In addition to cotton, the family farmed wheat and barley. Muñoz worked for Kai family businesses for more than 25 years.
The Kai family’s roots run deep in Marana — his parents were considered among the founders of the farming area going back to the 1930s.
Today, the Kai family has dealings in agriculture, real estate, construction and other interests, and is one of Marana’s largest landholders. John Kai is the brother of Marana Town Councilman Herb Kai.
Muñoz “did what needed to be done on the farm,” said Kai of the former employee whose work included irrigating and weeding the fields.
He showed up at Kai’s office four months ago, wanting to talk to his former boss.
According to court documents, after Muñoz retired he “subsisted on disability since 2013,” and he was not been happy about the severance package he received from Kai. Muñoz told Kai’s office manager that he wanted to talk to Kai and asked her to translate for him.
The three sat at a large table, and Muñoz told Kai that “he should have been paid more for his years of service,” state the documents. Kai and the office manager explained to Muñoz that “he had been fully paid out upon his retirement, including for vacation and sick time and that the business didn’t owe him money.”
Muñoz then asked for a $500 loan, and Kai told him he did not have the cash and showed him “the limited amount of cash in his wallet.”
Muñoz stood up, and Kai and the office manager saw that Muñoz was holding a semi-automatic handgun. He said no one was going to laugh at him and that he was going to kill them both, according to the documents.
During the interview, Kai said he remembers Muñoz’s threats to kill and that he told workers to call 911.
He said he can still picture how Muñoz pushed the office manager, who slammed into a partition and fell to the floor. “Then he turned to me and shot me,” said Kai.
“I am slowly recovering. I don’t have the sense of smell or taste, and I have to get adjusted to seeing from one eye. It is going to take time,” he said.
“I still have a hole in the palate of my mouth,” said Kai, describing the aftermath of his wounds.
“I may have to face another operation,” he said, explaining that he underwent reconstructive surgeries during his treatment after the shooting.
Surgeons operated on his mouth and eye, which needed to be removed because of the trauma caused by the bullet. He takes medication to relieve his anxiety and help him with PTSD, which can bring flashbacks and feelings of isolation and avoidance.
“I just want to stay low-key,” said Kai, who is married and has four grown children and two young daughters, ages 10 and 12.
“It will take some time before I go back to work,” said Kai, who mostly stays home and rests as a part of his healing.
“I try to get out a bit, but the ordeal of the shooting bothers me.”
“I know I have to move forward. The Lord has more work cut out for me, otherwise I would be with him,” said Kai, who said he finds comfort in his faith and attending Sunday Bible study group at Casas Adobes Baptist Church in Oro Valley.
