In July 2021, a photo went viral of a woman leaning out of the window of a Cadillac CTS holding an AK-47 while participating in an illegal sideshow event in San Francisco. Fast forward two years and authorities have arrested the man who was behind the wheel.
Police raided the house of Christopher Gonzalez-Nuñez in June and found three guns, two of which were handguns without serial numbers. They also found ammunition in a backpack that was thrown over a fence. Gonzalez-Nuñez has been previously charged with battery and arrested for assault, robbery, and domestic violence.
Police originally seized the CTS used in the viral sideshow photo back in August 2021. Authorities were able to track him down as the driver as he was tagged in Instagram photos of the incident, SF Gate reports.
“Not only does the car match a vehicle that Gonzalez-Nuñez owned at the time, but Instagram users tagged him in photos from the incident and mentioned him by name,” assistant U.S. attorney Leif Dautch said. “Perhaps most tellingly, Gonzalez-Nuñez posted a photo on his Instagram account of what appears to be him wearing a T-shirt depicting his significant other leaning out of his car holding the gun.”
Read: Subaru Repeatedly Rams Burning 370Z During Chaotic Oakland Sideshow, 80 Cars Seized
The charges brought against Gonzalez- Nuñez are not related to the sideshow incident but had photos not quickly spread online as they did, police may have had a harder time tracking him down.
Illegal sideshows have become a growing problem in San Francisco, and other areas of California, over the past few years. In May, police in San Francisco seized two Chevrolet Corvettes and a Ford Mustang involved in a sideshow event on April 15. This incident happened just a couple of weeks before police seized 80 vehicles in a separate sideshow in Oakland, California where a silver Nissan 370Z was burned to the ground.