A Utah father has been arrested for instructing his four-year-old child to shoot at officers after he pulled a gun on staff at a McDonald’s drive-thru over a bungled order.

The incident took place at McDonald’s in the city of Midvale in Salt Lake County in the US state of Utah on the afternoon of 21st February.

Sgt. Melody Cutler, spokesperson for the Unified Police Department (UPD) of Greater Salt Lake, said the man, name not reported, brandished a firearm at McDonald’s staff at the drive-thru after they got his order wrong.

Workers asked the man, who was with two small children at the time, to pull over in the waiting area while they corrected the food order. During this time, they called the police.

Officers arrived on the scene and the man was uncooperative and had to be dragged out of the car, according to Cutler.

While one officer was placing the father into custody, a colleague looked back at the car and saw a gun pointing from the rear window.

The cop instinctively swiped at the gun as it fired and also shouted “kid”.

The bullet shot upwards and struck the overhead awning.

Cutler said a witness saw the man telling his four-year-old child to shoot the gun and declined to give any further information.

The child was in the backseat of the car with its three-year-old sibling.

Salt Lake County sheriff Rosie Rivera said: “To have an adult think it is okay to encourage a four-year-old to pull a firearm and shoot at police illustrates how out of hand the campaign against police has gotten.”

The two children are currently in the care of family members and the Division of Child and Family Services who are reviewing their domestic situation.

The investigation is ongoing.