The arrest of Shia LaBeouf in New Orleans in the early hours of Tuesday, while Mardi Gras celebrations were underway in the city, is facing new scrutiny, as the alleged victim of the actor’s rampage that night says he was targeted in the confrontation, which he described as an alleged hate crime.
The brawl that occurred 15 minutes after midnight at R Bar in the city’s Faubourg Marigny neighborhood — a video of which was widely shared online, the latter showing LaBeouf’s warring Jekyll and Hyde display as he was tied up outside the bar — left two bartenders injured and the actor facing two charges of simple assault; He was quickly released early Tuesday afternoon on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear again in court on March 19.
Jeffrey “Damn,” a longtime local fixture and master of ceremonies at many New Orleans events, is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild and now lives and works in Hollywood most of the year. He said Hollywood Reporter On Wednesdays he makes several trips to New Orleans every year; He first moved to The Big Easy in 1995 and over the years, he has held several bartending jobs, including at R Bar. He said that his initial encounter with… transformers The star began hours before the street brawl that has now gone viral.
“He bumped into me, hit me in some boxes,” Jeffery explained of his first encounter with LaBeouf around 5 p.m. on Monday. Then he turned around and shouted, “Don’t push me.” “I will kill you.” I didn’t touch it.” Jeffree said he tried to defuse the situation but claimed LaBeouf escalated things, stuck his finger in his face and called him a homophobe.
“He said he was going to kick me and called me a faggot,” Jeffrey said. “I told him I wasn’t going to fight him. I wasn’t giving it to him.”
LaBeouf was in and out of the bar throughout Monday evening and appeared extremely intoxicated. He remembers that when he returned to the bar around midnight, the situation had worsened.
“He was yelling at a waiter and had to be escorted out,” Jeffrey said. As soon as he got out, he started pacing down the street, shouting: “You’re all a bunch of faggots. I’m going to kick your ass.'” Jeffree said he briefly intervened when a topless LaBeouf lunged at an employee.
“I grabbed him and held him for less than a minute so he wouldn’t hit the waiter,” he said. “The waiter asked me to leave it, and I did.”
Moments later, LaBeouf allegedly punched a second waiter in the face, breaking his nose. Videos from outside the bar show LaBeouf being handcuffed as he continues to scream.
“He kept trying to get up and fight people,” Jeffrey said. “He wouldn’t stop screaming insults. That’s why I say this wasn’t just a bar fight. This was about hate.”
Police, who said they should have been informed to suppress the scene, took statements from Jeffrey and at least one bartender at R Bar. LaBeouf was transported from the scene and later released on his own recognizance, according to court records. New videos were circulated on social media showing the actor dancing on Bourbon Street after his release, while the actor was holding his release papers from prison in his mouth.
Jeffrey said the speed of this release surprised him.
“Over the decades of coming to Mardi Gras, I’ve always realized that if you go to prison during Mardi Gras, you’re not going to get out until after Ash Wednesday,” he said. “The only thing that surprised me was that anyone else would have gone to prison.”
He added that the decision to release LaBeouf so quickly “sends a terrible message” about accountability during one of the city’s busiest weeks.
Aside from the physical confrontation, Jeffrey said the insults and threats are what linger the most.
“Any time someone insists on calling me a ‘faggot’ and threatening to hurt me because of it, that’s something you never get used to,” he said. “I’ve worked in bars for years. I’ve seen fights. But when someone shouts that word over and over again while trying to attack people, it’s different.”
He also expressed concern about career repercussions, noting that he and LaBeouf both work in the entertainment industry.
“I wouldn’t feel safe meeting him on set,” he said. “If he can make a call and get out of jail before anyone else, what’s to stop him from making a call about my career?” LaBeouf recently claimed he was sober and blamed past abusive behavior, leading to a lawsuit over mental and physical abuse from his former musician FKA Twigs. Before his arrest in New Orleans on Tuesday, he went on a long weekend walk during Mardi Gras in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood, according to employees of several drinking establishments.
