NYC pizzeria worker mauled by pit bull left in a coma with ‘extensive injuries’ — as dog owner accused of beating him faces judge

The Manhattan pizzeria worker mauled by an irate customer’s pit bull during a savage beatdown was sent into a coma and remains hooked to a respirator, it was revealed in court Wednesday — as a judge expressed surprise that prosecutors didn’t ask for his alleged attacker to be held without bail.

Victim Zakaira El Sherief may not survive the brutal Monday night attack in which Tyshaun Watson, 35, allegedly beat him unconscious and then stomped on his head when the worker told him he couldn’t bring his dog into the Flatiron pizza joint, authorities said.

“I’m surprised the people aren’t asking for remand based on the condition of the complaining witness at this juncture,” Judge Simiyon Haniff said during Watson’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

“These are serious allegations. This man’s in the hospital intubated, and that is serious,” Haniff said, as he granted prosecutors’ request that Watson be held on $250,000 cash bail or $500,000 bond.

Watson, who trotted into court wearing a blue surgical mask and bandages on his ankle and arm, faces charges including second-degree attempted murder.

He’s accused of “repeatedly punching [El Sherief] in the face and body” while his dog bit the hapless victim, Assistant District Attorney Nicole Borczyk said in court.

They ended up on the sidewalk in front of Roma Pizzeria on Fifth Avenue, where Watson allegedly choked  El Sherief and kept up the assault, she said.

Once El Sherief was unconscious, Watson allegedly stomped his head in.

Two days later, the 47-year-old husband and dad is still in the hospital, desperately clinging to life after suffering what the ADA described as “extensive injuries” including brain bleeds and internal bleeding.

El Sherief “remains intubated and unresponsive to external stimuli,” Borczyk said, adding that it’s not clear if he will survive.

The brutal assault came after Watson, a National Guard member and hospitality worker from Secaucus, New Jersey, wandered into the pizza joint with his pit bull at around 10 p.m. and tried to sit in the restaurant’s dining area, according to the Flatiron pizza joint’s day manager.

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El Sherief tried to tell him he couldn’t bring his dog in, which sent Watson into a violent rage and sparked the beating.

“Zach went back and said, ‘I’m so very sorry, but it’s the law, there’s nothing I can do — you can’t have the dog in the dining area,’” recalled pizzeria manager Timmy Moha in an interview Wednesday, adding that his colleague offered Watson an outdoor table where he could sit with his dog.

Watson then allegedly exploded, cursing and screaming as he followed El Sherief back to the register.

“He started punching Zack at the register, and Zack went down,” Moha said.

“That’s when the dog started biting and attacking him.”

A kitchen worker tried to pull El Sherief away, but the dog turned on him and scared him back into the kitchen, where he called the cops.

El Sherief tried to run out the front door, but he began to pass out, Moha said.

Watson followed, punching him again before stomping on his head.

“He stomped on his head because he was trying to kill him,” Moha said.

“And then you can see him look like, ‘Okay, I did what I wanted to do.’”

NYC pizzeria worker clinging to life after customer’s vicious pit bull goes on the attack

It was those kicks that led to the most serious damage, the manager continued.

“The doctor told me the scratches, the cuts from the dog, the bites on his fingers, they’re bad but they are nothing,” Moha said.

“It’s the stomping on his skull that has him in critical condition. That’s what did the serious damage.”

After the attack, Watson went back into the restaurant, sat down at a table and waited for the cops.

“He was just staring at himself in the mirror,” Moha said.

“He was just staring at himself and calming his dog. When the cops came, he just put both hands up and stood up. He looked like he was drunk or on drugs.”

Cops said he bizarrely apologized to them after the attack as well.

Public defender Kristin McAlpin said Watson might have been drunk during the attack, considering his prior criminal record in Virginia.

Watson lives with his significant other and works as a senior sales manager at a hotel on Fifth Avenue, where he sells blocks of rooms to wedding parties and other big groups, his attorney said.

He also served for a decade as a chemical specialist in the National Guard and is the father of a 10-year-old boy, attorneys said.

He worked for Apple before he was laid off during the pandemic, she added.

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Watson — who is due back in court Friday — faces between five and 25 years in prison for the attack, court documents said.

He has no criminal record in New York, but prior arrests in Virginia for drunk driving, embezzlement and domestic violence assault, according to court records.

The pizzeria manager and customers described El Sherief as a nice guy who’s “friendly with everybody.”

“Zack and I started around the same time a year ago,”  Moha, a 28-year-old originally from Egypt, told The Post.

“He’s the night manager, I’m the day manager. We’re both from Egypt, we both live in New Jersey. He is my friend.”

Moha said he visited his injured colleague in the hospital Wednesday morning, where he remains in a medically-induced coma — even as his wife and kids are half-a-world away in Italy.

“He’s got an injury in his brain, he’s got a broken skull,” Moha said.

“He’s in critical condition and the doctors say we have to wait and see, it’ll be a matter of time.”

Cleuza Marcondes, a 60-year-old woman who regularly patronizes the pizza joint, said she stopped by the restaurant to get an update on El Sherief’s condition.

“He is such a nice man. He is very generous to everyone, so nice to everyone,” she said.

“He sits down with me and talks about Italy because he lived there for years. He is from Egypt but his wife and two children are in Italy right now.

“He is so gentle and nice,” Marcondes added.

“It is a terrible thing that this happened.”

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