{"id":477322,"date":"2026-02-19T06:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477322\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:38:07","slug":"man-involved-in-shia-labeoufs-mardi-gras-arrest-skirmish-alleges-hate-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477322\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Involved in Shia LaBeouf\u2019s Mardi Gras Arrest Skirmish Alleges Hate Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tShia LaBeouf<\/a>\u2019s arrest in New Orleans in the early hours of Tuesday, as the city\u2019s Mardi Gras<\/a> celebrations were underway, is facing fresh scrutiny, as an alleged victim of the actor\u2019s rampage that night says he was targeted in the confrontation, which he is characterizing as an alleged hate crime.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe altercation that took place 15 minutes after midnight at R Bar in the city\u2019s Faubourg Marigny neighborhood \u2014 video of which circulated widely online, showing the latter of a belligerent LaBeouf\u2019s Jekyll and Hyde display as he was restrained outside the bar <\/a>\u2014 left two bartenders injured and the actor facing two counts of simple assault; he was quickly released by early afternoon Tuesday <\/a>on his own recognizance. He is due back in court on March 19.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tJeffrey \u201cDammit,\u201d a longtime local fixture and master of ceremonies at various New Orleans events, is also a Screen Actors Guild member who now resides and works in Hollywood most of the year. He told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday that he makes multiple trips back to New Orleans annually; he first moved to The Big Easy in 1995 and over the years, has taken various bartending jobs, including at R Bar. He said that his initial confrontation with the Transformers star began hours before the now-viral street scuffle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe smashed into me, knocking me into some boxes,\u201d Jeffrey explained of his first encounter with LaBeouf around 5 p.m. on Monday. \u201cThen he turned around screaming, \u2018Don\u2019t you fucking push me. I\u2019ll kill you.\u2019 I hadn\u2019t touched him.\u201d Jeffrey said he attempted to defuse the situation but alleges LaBeouf escalated things, putting a finger in his face and calling him a homophobic slur.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe said he\u2019d \u2018kick my ass\u2019 and called me a faggot,\u201d Jeffrey said. \u201cI told him I wasn\u2019t going to fight him. I wasn\u2019t giving him that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLaBeouf was in and out of the bar throughout Monday evening and appeared highly intoxicated. When he returned to the bar around midnight, he recalled, the situation had intensified.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe was screaming at a bartender and had to be escorted outside,\u201d Jeffrey said. \u201cOnce outside, he started pacing in the street, yelling, \u2018You\u2019re all a bunch of fucking faggots. I\u2019ll kick your ass.\u2019\u201d Jeffrey said he briefly intervened when a shirtless LaBeouf lunged at a staff member.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI grabbed him and held him for less than a minute so he wouldn\u2019t beat up the bartender,\u201d he said. \u201cThe bartender told me to let go, and I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMoments later, he alleges, LaBeouf punched a second bartender in the face, breaking his nose. Video clips from outside the bar show LaBeouf being restrained as he continues shouting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe kept trying to get up and fight people,\u201d Jeffrey said. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t stop screaming slurs. That\u2019s why I say this wasn\u2019t just a bar fight. This was about hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPolice, who he said had to be flagged down to quell the scene, took statements from Jeffrey and at least one R Bar bartender. LaBeouf was transported from the scene and later released on his own recognizance, according to court records. New videos circulated on social media showing the actor dancing on Bourbon Street after his release, with the actor holding his jail release paperwork in his mouth.<\/p>\n

\n\tJeffrey said the speed of that release surprised him.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn decades of coming to Mardi Gras, I\u2019ve always understood that if you go to jail during Mardi Gras, you\u2019re not getting out until after Ash Wednesday,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only thing I\u2019m surprised about is that anybody else would have been in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added that the decision to release LaBeouf quickly \u201csends a terrible message\u201d about accountability during one of the city\u2019s busiest weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond the physical confrontation, Jeffrey said that the slurs and threats are what linger most.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnytime somebody insists on calling me a \u2018faggot\u2019 and threatening to hurt me because of it \u2014\u00a0 that\u2019s not something you ever get used to,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve worked in bars for years. I\u2019ve seen fights. But when someone is screaming that word over and over while trying to attack people, that\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also expressed concern about professional fallout, noting that both he and LaBeouf work in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would not feel safe running into him on a set,\u201d he said. \u201cIf he could make a call and get out of jail before anybody else, what\u2019s stopping him from making a call about my career?\u201d LaBeouf recently claimed to be sober<\/a> and blamed past abusive behavior, some of which led to a lawsuit over mental and physical abuse from his ex, musician FKA Twigs. Before his arrest in New Orleans on Tuesday, he went on an extended weekend bar crawl<\/a> during Mardi Gras in New Orleans\u2019 Uptown neighborhood, according to employees of various drinking establishments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shia LaBeouf\u2019s arrest in New Orleans in the early hours of Tuesday, as the city\u2019s Mardi Gras celebrations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,187468,25417],"class_list":{"0":"post-477322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-mardi-gras","10":"tag-shia-labeouf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}