NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Actor Shia LaBeouf has been charged with battery and is accused of repeatedly using homophobic slurs while hitting multiple people at a New Orleans bar during Mardi Gras, according to a police report.
The New Orleans police report obtained by The Associated Press via a public records request states that LaBeouf, 39, “became irate and aggressive throughout the night” and struck multiple people with a closed fist at the Royal Street Inn & R Bar, near the historic French Quarter.
Jeffrey Damnit, a well-known local entertainer who police identified as Jeffrey Klein in the incident report, said he was one of the people attacked by LaBeouf.
“He hit me, he connected a few times with punches, he pushed me a few times,” Damnit said.
LaBeouf “just got nuts” trying to start fights and telling the entertainer and others that he would beat them up, Damnit said. He added that LaBeouf had pushed him from behind at the bar earlier in the night, shouting homophobic slurs and threatening his life.
Damnit was wearing eye makeup and lipstick and said he believes his appearance motivated LaBeouf's attack.
“That’s just somehow something that set him off, angered him and gave him a direction for his anger,” Damnit said. “This guy wants me to be dead because I wear makeup. It’s a screwed up thing."
A video shows a shirtless LaBeouf shoving one person to the ground and hitting another person in the face, “causing his nose to possibly dislocate,” according to the police report.
Damnit and others subdued LaBeouf and tried to get him to leave the area, but he would not leave and became more aggressive, according to Damnit and the police report.
Police arrived at the bar around 12:45 a.m. on the morning of the city’s famous Fat Tuesday revelry.
Another video recorded by Damnit and shared with the AP shows LaBeouf looking at the camera and appearing to mouth a homophobic slur while police detained him. He continued to repeat the slur throughout the arrest, the police report stated.
“These f–––––s put me in jail,” LaBeouf said, and then told police he's Catholic, according to the report.
“I didn’t shove nobody, I never touched nobody,” LaBeouf tells New Orleans police officers in the video recorded by Damnit.
Representatives for LaBeouf did not immediately respond to request for comment. In the early morning hours of Feb. 18, LaBeouf wrote “Free me” on his X account.
A New Orleans magistrate judge ordered LaBeouf to be released from custody on Tuesday without a bond requirement, according to Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office spokesperson Gary Scheets. LaBeouf has been charged with two counts of simple battery.
Videos later show LaBeouf dancing throughout the French Quarter and appear to show him waving his jail release papers.
Damnit, a member of the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, says he is worried that he will face ramifications in his professional career for pressing charges against LaBeouf.
This isn't the first time LaBeouf has faced legal troubles. He was sent to court-ordered rehabilitation after being arrested in New York in 2017 for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct, which was captured on livestream video.
While on location in Georgia filming “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” later that year, he was arrested for public drunkenness and accused of disorderly conduct and obstruction and sentenced to probation.
In 2020, he was charged with misdemeanor battery and petty theft in Los Angeles.
That year, the English singer and actor FKA Twigs, whose legal name is Tahliah Barnett, also filed a lawsuit alleging LaBeouf was physically and emotionally abusive to her during their relationship, which they settled in July.
Barnett said LaBeouf put her in a constant state of fear and humiliation, once slammed her into a car, tried to strangle her and knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
LaBeouf apologized in a statement after the lawsuit was filed. He also denied the accusations in the lawsuit in a 2021 filing, saying any injuries done or damages incurred by Barnett were not his doing.
The actor first gained acclaim as a child for his role on the Disney Channel series “Even Stevens,” and continued working steadily into adulthood. He is perhaps best known for his roles in 2007’s “Transformers” and in 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.”
LaBeouf shares a daughter, born in 2022, with actor Mia Goth.
AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr and AP Writer Juan A. Lozano contributed to this report.
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Shia LaBeouf poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film, "The Phoenician Scheme," at the 78th international film festival in Cannes, southern France, May 18, 2025. (Photo by Lewis Joly/Invision/AP, File)
SODA SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — Six women killed in the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in decades were part of a close-knit group of friends who were experienced backcountry skiers and knew how to navigate the wilderness of California's Sierra Nevada, their families said Thursday.
Two of the friends got out alive and were rescued along with four others, including one guide, after Tuesday’s avalanche. The three others who are dead or presumed dead were guides.
"We are devastated beyond words," the families said in a statement released through a spokesperson. “Our focus right now is supporting our children through this incredible tragedy and honoring the lives of these extraordinary women. They were all mothers, wives and friends, all of whom connected through the love of the outdoors.”
The six killed lived in the Bay Area, Idaho and near Lake Tahoe. They are Carrie Atkin, Liz Clabaugh, Danielle Keatley, Kate Morse, Caroline Sekar and Kate Vitt, the families said, asking for privacy as they grieve. They added that they “have many unanswered questions."
The families said the trip was well organized in advance and the women were equipped with avalanche safety equipment.
“They were experienced backcountry skiers who deeply respected the mountains,” the statement said. “They were trained and prepared for backcountry travel and trusted their professional guides on this trip.”
What the guides and their tour company knew about the warnings and risks from a powerful winter storm that blasted the mountains during the trip and why they pressed on is now part of investigations.
It will be at least another day before crews can attempt to recover the bodies and continue the search for the ninth person, said Ashley Quadros, a spokesperson for the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are on the mountain, but they are not going to be able to safely reach them,” she said Thursday. “The weather conditions are really dangerous.”
Several more feet of snow could fall around Lake Tahoe on Thursday and continue to destabilize the fragile snowpack, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center. It said that wind gusts along the ridgetops could reach 60 mph (100 kph) and warned there's a high risk of large avalanches through at least Friday morning. Tahoe National Forest lands in the Castle Peak area were also closed to the public until March 15.
The names of the other victims have not been released.
The 15 skiers began their three-day trip on Sunday just as warnings about the storm were intensifying. They spent the weekend staying along Frog Lake in high country huts accessible only by challenging trails.
Sekar and Clabaugh were sisters, their brother, McAlister Clabaugh, told The New York Times. Sekar was a mother of two who lived in San Francisco, and Liz Clabaugh worked as a new graduate nurse residency program coordinator for St. Luke’s Health System in Boise, Idaho, according to her LinkedIn page.
Vitt lived in San Francisco and had previously worked at SiriusXM and Pandora, according to her LinkedIn page. The Kentfield School District sent an email to families Wednesday saying that her two sons “are safe and are with their father, Geoff, as they navigate this profound loss," according to The New York Times.
Atkin lived in Lake Tahoe with her husband and two children and was a former corporate executive and Division I Track & Field athlete, according to her leadership coaching website.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who lives in Marin County with his family, said some of his “wife’s old family friends” were on the trip.
“These were some experienced guides that were out there and that’s what’s even more concerning and disturbing,” he said at a news conference Thursday. His office didn’t immediately provide more details.
Some members of the group had ties with the elite Sugar Bowl Academy.
Perched on Donner Summit, the academy is a private boarding and day school for competitive skiers and snowboarders. Its former students include multiple Olympians.
“This tragedy has affected each and every one of us,” Sugar Bowl Academy executive director Stephen McMahon said in the statement.
Mayor Max Perrey of Marin County’s Mill Valley, a city just north of San Francisco, confirmed that some in the group were women from his city.
One of the victims was married to a member of a backcountry search and rescue team in the area, said Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo.
Sarah Reynaud, an owner of Tahoe Mountain School, had planned to take a trip with her family last weekend to Frog Lake but canceled it due to illness, The Mercury News reported. She described the region's ski community as extremely tight knit and said the avalanche was devastating.
The four guides were employed by Blackbird Mountain Guides, which offers mountaineering and backcountry ski trips as well as safety courses. The company said in a statement that it launched an investigation and was mourning the loss of three of its guides.
Blackbird’s website says the tour was intended for intermediate to expert skiers.
The guides with the group were trained or certified in backcountry skiing, and were instructors with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education. While in the field, they “are in communication with senior guides at our base, to discuss conditions and routing based upon conditions,” founder Zeb Blais said in the statement.
“We don’t have all the answers yet, and it may be some time before we do,” the company said.
“This was an enormous tragedy, and the saddest event our team has ever experienced. In addition to mourning the loss of six clients, we also mourn the loss of three highly experienced members of our guide team,” Blais said.
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said authorities will investigate why the guides proceeded with the tour despite the forecast.
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, a state agency that regulates workplace safety, is also investigating to determine if the company violated California law.
The Sierra Avalanche Center had issued an avalanche watch Sunday morning, the first day of the trip, indicating a high risk of large avalanches.
It’s not uncommon for backcountry skiers to go out when there is an avalanche watch or even a warning, avalanche safety experts say. In avalanche terrain that covers many backcountry areas, slides occur regularly but often go unnoticed. Even if people have signals to keep up with the forecast and changing conditions, there is no single way to react.
Leaving could set off an avalanche, while staying put could keep people in its path. It wasn’t clear if the guides on the trip were aware of the avalanche warning, but they are trained to test the snow and assess conditions on the ground.
At least one guide was able to send text messages. Two of those rescued were taken to a hospital but both have since been released.
The avalanche is the deadliest in the U.S. since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier in Washington state.
Another deadly avalanche on Wednesday killed a man riding a snowmobile in Utah despite the “courageous efforts” of his young son who dug him out of the snow, the Wasatch County sheriff’s office said. Another avalanche, also in Utah, killed a girl in in Salt Lake County, police told local news.
Watson reported from San Diego and Golden from Seattle. Associated Press writers John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; R.J. Rico in Atlanta; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
Snow comes down on a dog as traffic is backed up and motorists exit their vehicles along interstate 80 during a storm Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, near Soda Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Adrián Narayan digs his car out of the snow Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Soda Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
A motorist scrapes ice off his vehicle along interstate 80 during a snow storm Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, near Camp Spaulding in Placer County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Snow is plowed in front of businesses during a snow storm Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Soda Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
A motorist exits a vehicle during a snow storm Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Placer County, Calf. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Snow comes down on pine trees during a storm Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in in Placer County, Calf. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
A California Highway Patrol vehicle is parked along a road during a snow storm Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Placer County, Calf. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
A motorist exits a vehicle during a snow storm Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Placer County, Calf. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Pine trees are covered in snow during a storm on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
Trucks are lined up along Interstate 80 during a storm on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
A road is cleared during a snow storm on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026 near Soda Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
Snow covers a road on an underpass along interstate 80 on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026 near Soda Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
