Shooting call leads to 2 arrests in 2 Bend robberies

The solving, with two arrests, of a pair of Bend robberies last year began with an odd police call a month ago – a man claiming his girlfriend found a gun on their front porch after a knock on the door, and that it then went off.

By the end of that night, he was in jail, accused of shooting her during a struggle with the gun – and while he’s been in jail ever since, she was arrested Tuesday, accused of being the getaway driver in those two earlier crimes. He, too, faces numerous counts in those robberies.

Back on Aug. 28 of last year, police began investigating an armed robbery at an Arco gas station at 575 NE Bellevue Drive, said Lt. Ben Gregory. Several shots were fired by the suspect from a handgun, he said.

In that early-morning holdup, police said a masked gunman walked in, pulled a gun and demanded cash. He fired a shot during a struggle with the employee for the gun. The worker was not hit but suffered another injury and was treated at the hospital and released.

Nearly three months later, on Nov. 27, police were called to a robbery at the Shari’s Restaurant on N. Highway 97 in Bend, Gregory said. In that case, the robber entered the restaurant with a metal tool, removed cash from a register, then fought with a customer and employee before fleeing.

On Dec. 15, police detectives began investigating an incident at a home on NE Ross road in which they said Anthony Joseph Pastran, 44, allegedly called 911 to say his girlfriend, Lisa Anne Schnittke, 39, was shot in the leg by a handgun she found on the porch after a knock on the door.

But police interviewed the pair and said they eventually determined he’d shot her in the leg during a struggle over the gun.

A search warrant was served at the home, Gregory said, and evidence and information from the three incidents enabled police to link the pair to the Arco and Shari’s robberies. That led to grand jury indictments of both.

Gregory said investigators believe Pastran entered the Arco station and robbed it, while Schnittke drove the car they fled in. They also suspect he entered Shari’s North and committed that robbery, with Schnittke present, then driving their getaway car, he said.

Pastran, in custody since Dec. 15, remained at the Deschutes County Jail on Tuesday, facing more than a dozen charges and being held on over $400,000 bail. Schnittke also faces numerous charges and was held on $100,000 bail.

In the two robbery cases, the man and woman are charged with three counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of fourth-degree assault, seven counts of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of second-degree assault.