Man sentenced to prison for shooting Vegas Chinatown waiter

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man was sentenced Monday to seven-to-18 years in state prison for shooting a waiter multiple times during a botched after-hours robbery at a restaurant in the Chinatown district of Las Vegas about a year ago.

Rashawn Gaston-Anderson, 24, said nothing in court. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the wounded former waiter, Chengyan Wang, said he had been shot more than 10 times.

“He tried to murder me,” Wang told the judge.

Gaston-Anderson pleaded guilty in November to felony mayhem and attempted robbery with a weapon — avoiding trial under a plea deal that also could lead to dismissal of three other criminal cases against him.

His attorney, Michael Troiano, told The Associated Press in an email that the sentence represented “a just outcome” after negotiations about “a tough matter.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Wang told the Review-Journal after the hearing that he still is receiving physical therapy for his injuries and is unable to return to work.

Wang had moved to Las Vegas from China just months before the attack. He told police he was mopping the floor early Dec. 20, 2021, when he was confronted by a gunman who entered the restaurant through an unlocked back door and demanded money.

Las Vegas police pleaded after the shooting for public help to identify the assailant, releasing video of a slender man dressed in a hooded jacket, face covering, gloves and white shorts walking through well-lit walkways around the two-story shopping complex.

Gaston-Anderson was arrested Dec. 27 at a Las Vegas-area mental health facility.

Police said they found no evidence the attack on Wang was a hate crime or that the shooter specifically targeted the Asian community.