{"id":101656,"date":"2026-01-15T22:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T22:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101656\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T22:09:08","slug":"brute-who-beat-nyc-pizzeria-manager-into-coma-nearly-derails-sentencing-with-unhinged-rant-blaming-victim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101656\/","title":{"rendered":"Brute who beat NYC pizzeria manager into coma nearly derails sentencing with unhinged rant blaming victim"},"content":{"rendered":"

The brute who beat a Manhattan pizzeria manager<\/a> unconscious in a senseless attack nearly derailed his own plea deal Thursday \u2014 when he brazenly started blaming the victim, infuriating the judge.<\/p>\n

Tyshaun Watson, who had pleaded guilty in exchange for a promised 17-year prison sentence, launched into a wild rant during the Manhattan Supreme Court hearing, claiming he\u2019d been \u201cprovoked\u201d before he pummeled pizza-maker Zakaira El Sherief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was being provoked\u2026 if you watch the video,\u201d he railed \u2014 until Judge Laura Ward interrupted and shot back at him that \u201cMaybe we should go to trial on this and let the jury decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyshaun Watson was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the brutal beating of a Roma Pizzeria worker in Flatiron. Steven Hirsch for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s pit bull bit the victim multiple times, according to prosecutors. William Farrington<\/p>\n

Watson, 36, continued to bizarrely claim that \u201cfacts\u201d from surveillance footage of the of the Aug. 19, 2024 assault inside Roma Pizza in the Flatiron District proved the poor employee had instigated a fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we play the video, you\u2019re going to trial and looking at 25 years,\u201d the judge threatened, before eventually playing the footage for the courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were the first one to go behind the counter. He did not come out to get you,\u201d a seething Ward snapped at him. <\/p>\n

Indeed, the footage showed a wobbly Watson walking into the eatery with his black pit bull unleashed, then ordering two slices of pizza and a drink and taking a seat in the back of the restaurant.<\/p>\n

The manager was seen coming over to him three times to speak, apparently telling him he could not have a dog without a leash inside the pizzeria.<\/p>\n

Watson eventually picked up his slices and walked to the counter at front of the restaurant, where El Sherief packed the pizza in a to-go box, before the two appeared to start yapping at each other.<\/p>\n

Watson then walks behind the counter, punches the victim and wrestles him to the ground \u2014 where he then starts to pummel him as his dog begins attacking the pair, the footage shows.<\/p>\n

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El Sherief eventually was able to get himself up and out of the pizzeria, where he attempted to block the doors to prevent his assailant from getting away \u2014 but Watson pushed his way through and began the vicious beating again, tackling the victim to the ground. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant stomped on the manager\u2019s head, not once, but twice, as he laid unresponsive against the hard concrete,\u201d Assistant District Attorney Nicole Borczyk said.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said Watson became \u201cirate\u201d when the 47-year-old victim told him repeatedly that his pit bull wasn\u2019t allowed inside the pizza parlor<\/a>, prompting the horrific attack.<\/p>\n

The beating left El Sherief in a medically induced coma for two weeks<\/a>. He ended up spending two months in the hospital for multiple fractures and brain bleeding, but has since been able to make a \u201cmiraculous recovery,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Watson, who called the manager a \u201cf\u2013king b\u2013ch\u201d during the beatdown,<\/a> initially claimed that \u201cwhiskey played a part\u201d in the vicious assault, the judge noted, before letting him address the court at the dramatic sentencing hearing. <\/p>\n

The viciously beating happened inside Roma Pizza. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

Tyshaun Watson attacking pizzeria worker Zakaira El Sherief. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

Watson made it behind the counter during the attack. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

Watson admitted to throwing the first punch. Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

After rewatching the video in court, Ward gave Watson another chance to avoid trial and to stick with the 17-year sentence settled upon as part of his plea agreement. <\/p>\n

Watson, who copped to two counts of assault in the first degree on Dec. 3, 2025, finally admitted to \u201cabsolutely\u201d throwing the first punch before offering a half-hearted apology to the victim, who was not in court as expected because he was feeling ill, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

But Watson then began complaining about the length of his \u201cexcessive\u201d sentence, complaining that it was more fit for a homicide \u2014 irking the judge even more. Prosecutors had initially recommended a sentence of 25 years behind bars. <\/p>\n

Ward eventually found that Watson had taken responsibility \u2014 but warned him that she would fight to make sure he stayed in the slammer for his full sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust so you know, I will use everything in my power whenever you come up for a parole review, to make sure that you stay in (prison) for the entire 17 years,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s attorney, Samantha Chorny, said outside the courtroom she felt that her client had taken accountability for the crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The brute who beat a Manhattan pizzeria manager unconscious in a senseless attack nearly derailed his own plea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11640,357,4327,57,9,56,63,65,64,11641,343,3209,58],"class_list":["post-101656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-animal-attacks","tag-assaults","tag-manhattan-supreme-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pit-bulls","tag-pizza","tag-sentencing","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}