Il Pastaio Robbery Latest In A String Of Watch-Related Attacks

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Thursday afternoon’s shooting at celebrity hotspot Il Pastaio on N. Canon left a woman with a bullet wound to her calf, her boyfriend and police confirmed to NBC4. The attack was the latest in a recent string of violent watch robberies in the area.

Drew Hancock told NBC4 that his girlfriend Amanda Shawhan was grazed on the back of her calf after a fight broke out between three men 10 yards away from the restaurant where they were dining. Hancock said he didn’t realize what was happening, and thought it was a drunken fight.

Officers arrived within 90 seconds and treated Shawhan for non-life threatening injuries. She was released from the hospital Thursday evening, according to multiple broadcast reports, and the area around the restaurant was reopened Thursday night.

Police said that a second woman suffered a physical injury during the incident and was treated at the scene.

"It sounded like there was a scuffle between a guy and three other guys,” Hancock told NBC4, describing the robbers as young, loud, and masked. “I heard one gunshot and I immediately turned towards my girlfriend. As I was grabbing her and throwing her and her friend through the doorway, there were three more shots and there was, like, bullets right in the brick, in the sidewalk where our table was.”

The suspects tried to steal a man's watch as he sat in the restaurant's patio area at the corner of Canon Drive and Brighton Way, according to witnesses and the victim. The victim told NBC4 that one of the suspects threatened him with a gun to his head and forced him to give up the rose gold Richard Mille timepiece, which he said was valued at around $500,000.

The owner of the jewelry store that sold the watch is reportedly offering a $50,000 reward for the return of the watch and another $50,000 for anyone who turns in the robbers, according to FOXLA News. The suspects, whom police describe as three African-American males, have been caught on camera and were last seen running east on Brighton Way. Police found a gun believed to belong to the robbers at the restaurant.

“I feel good nobody got injured and nobody got killed because all the other stuff can be fixed,” Il Pastaio owner Celestino Drago, one of LA’s most celebrated chefs, told KTLA. “I feel bad for the customers, for the city, for the police department, for everybody. You don’t expect stuff like this to happen.”

More than half a dozen daytime Rolex robberies have taken place around Fairfax and Melrose since the beginning of the year. Two times in January, robbers tackled men to the ground for Rolex watches. On Jan. 20, two men attacked a man and stole his watch. On Jan. 30, robbers tackled a man on the 700 block of North Vista Street and also took his Rolex.

Beverly Hills Police spokesperson Lt. Max Subin said the department is cooperating with the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station and the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate whether these events are related.

"I’ve never seen it like this before,” Dominick Deluca, a shop owner who captured footage of suspects tackling a man for his watch, told NBC4. “It’s bad. It’s really, really bad.”

Related coverage:

1 Shot During Beverly Hills Restaurant Robbery | Beverly Hills, CA Patch

— Michael Wittner and City News Service contributed to this report.