Authorities are now investigating the possibility the kitchen worker found dead outside Guido’s restaurant Sunday night may have died of natural causes, according to multiple reports.
Initial reports Sunday night indicated the man was shot, while a report written by Deputy Tony Moore of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and released early Monday morning said the man was attacked by a group of unidentified assailants outside of Guido’s, in the Cross Creek shopping center, and beaten to death.
Now, sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Whitmore says the man may have died of natural causes. The county coroner’s department is expected to perform an autopsy soon, which Whitmore said would indicate what happened.
“That’s going to clear up a lot of questions,” Whitmore told The Malibu Times. “The autopsy’s gonna tell us what happened.”
An official in the Dept. of Coroner, when questioned about the man who had been beaten to death, responded, “He wasn’t beaten to death. We won’t know until we do the exam.”
A second coroner’s official, Lt. Fred Corral in the Coroner’s Investigation Division, said the man’s next of kin had not been notified yet, and his name would not be released until then. Tony Waldrop, the manager of Guido’s restaurant, told the Los Angeles Times the man had worked there for about a year.
Guido’s part-owner Vassil Pertchinkov said he was not at the restaurant at the time and could not comment on specifics of the case due to the ongoing investigation.
“We are very sad that it happened,” Pertchinkov said. “It’s just very sad.”
Pertchinkov said Guido’s would be closed on Monday for business but would re-open on Tuesday.