Las Vegas waiter in ‘shock’ before he was shot, police say
A Las Vegas waiter stood in “shock” as a man demanded money from him and then shot him multiple times, according to an arrest report released Monday.
Recovering from a violent attack after hours on Dec. 20 at ShangHai Taste restaurant, Chengyan Wang told police that he was mopping the floor when a gunman entered the restaurant through the unlocked back door and started talking to him, but he couldn’t understand anything except the word “money.”
Wang “just stood there in shock and when he didn’t move, the male pulled out a black firearm from behind his back and pointed it at him and again said something about ‘money,’ the report stated. “Chengyan said that the male must have gotten impatient because he then began to shoot him ‘so many times’ and then ran out of the back door to the business.”
The man eventually shot him and ran off.
Las Vegas police identified Rashawn Gaston-Anderson as the suspect in the shooting, saying at the time that police found an unresponsive man bleeding and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds at the restaurant at 4266 Spring Mountain Road. He was taken to University Medical Center in “critical but stable condition,” police said.
Last week a co-owner of the restaurant said Wang was expected to survive, but doctors were unsure of his long-term health prognosis. His condition on Monday was not immediately available.
Police had identified Gaston-Anderson through surveillance video in the area and also learned that he was treated at Spring Valley Hospital just a few hours after the attack, according to the report. Hospital staff told police that he was treated for a hand injury and released a few hours later.
A week after the shooting, an employee at the Desert Parkway Mental Health Facility called police and told them Gaston-Anderson was in the waiting room, according to the report. Police arrived and arrested him, but the arrest report did not explain why Gaston-Anderson was at the facility.
He is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center.
Contact Jonah Dylan at jdylan@reviewjournal.com. Follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.
