Bartender’s Slaying Shatters Mother-Son Reunion

Mary Shetler laughed and talked excitedly Thursday night as she sat in the lounge of Wellingtons, a restaurant in North Hollywood, watching her son Wayne tend bar.

Shetler was visiting California from her home in Union City, Pa., and hadn’t seen her son for three years. As midnight approached, mother and son talked about the trip to Arizona they planned for the following day. They were packed and ready. They hoped to start early.

But 10 minutes before closing time a casually dressed man in his mid-20s walked into the lounge with a semiautomatic rifle, police said. He pointed the weapon and fired several shots, killing bartender Wayne Paris, 38, and wounding two customers.

The killer ran away without taking any money. Paris--he had changed his name from John Shetler years ago--was pronounced dead at the scene. One customer, Keith Poppe, 40, was in critical condition Friday at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. Another customer, Armand Bouzas, was in serious to critical condition at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

Police investigators were looking for a suspect and a motive.

Detectives said some witnesses told them the attacker announced he was going to rob the lounge, but that other witnesses said he was silent.

The bar’s co-owner said in an interview that the gunman did not appear to have any intention to rob the restaurant.

“This guy didn’t utter a word. He just walked in, aimed and shot,” said Paul Cutts, 39, “There was no indication why he did it. He just did.”

Instead of taking the long-anticipated trip, Mary Shetler spent Friday in grief and shock, sleeping only half an hour at her son’s residence in Burbank.

“She keeps seeing what happened, over and over again,” said Jeff Roberts, 37, a friend of the Shetlers who was also visiting California on a vacation. “What a thing to have to go through. She is just torn up about this.”

Roberts said Mary Shetler and her son were close, and that she had been looking forward a long time to visiting him.

“I was at the restaurant last night just before it happened,” he said. “The mood was very up, and everybody was in a good mood. I was saying goodby to everyone, because I was going back home. I left five minutes before it happened.”

“He had everything going for him,” Roberts said. “He was charming, good-looking. He wasn’t only known throughout the Valley, but around Los Angeles. He had been a bartender at several bars, and he was just one of those folks that had people gravitating toward him.”

Paris had changed his name several years ago when he was a dancer in Las Vegas, Roberts said. He had been living in the Los Angeles area for about 14 years.

As a sidelight, Paris also made stained glass art, Roberts said. All the windows of his one-story home were made of stained glass, and he had also done work for several Valley residents.

“It was just a hobby,” Roberts said. “He liked being around people.”

‘He Was Charming’

Cutts, the bar owner, said he did not know why anyone would want to shoot Paris.

“He had been working here for about 18 months,” Cutts said. “He was charming. . . . He didn’t have any enemies. Everyone liked him.”

On Friday night all 16 of the bar stools in the small, quiet lounge at 4354 Lankershim Blvd. were occupied by steady customers, men in their late 20s to late 40s. Many talked about the killing in shocked tones. None had witnessed it, they said, but all said they had known Shetler.

“He was a good bartender,” said John Toledo of North Hollywood. “He was a good personality. He was very well known to all of us.”