Ten people were injured when gunfire erupted outside a restaurant in Miami Gardens, Florida on Thursday night (Jan. 5) during what witnesses said was a video shoot for French Montana. According to WSVN 7, Miami Gardens Police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue units responded to reports of shots fired at The Licking Gardens during an incident that reportedly involved three different crime scenes; the other two scenes were not identified at press time.
7News reported that MGPD detective Diana Gorgue said Thursday night that police were still working the scene, which involved “multiple shots… multiple cases,” with four victims reportedly airlifted to a local trauma center and four others transporting themselves to a hospital. Witnesses told police that the gunfire erupted while Montana was shooting a music video outside The Licking.
One witness said they came to watch Montana’s video production, during which a fellow bystander was allegedly robbed of his watch, keys and wallet. “[He asked to] call his mother and see if we can get spare car keys and make sure, you know, he’s OK, and then the gunshots went off,” said witness Ced Mogul, a local rapper. “At least 13, 14, 15 gunshots. It was very rapid, it sounded like an assault rifle.”
It was unclear at press time whether someone shot into the crowd or if there was an exchange of gunfire, according to 7News. “I took off running, and I was looking back, but I was like, ‘You know what? Let me just duck first, and then people started asking me, you know, ‘Can you help me?’” Mogul said. “When I realized people were asking for help, there was nothing you could do about it when you got shot.”
NBC6 reported that police said an altercation that started at a different location eventually ended at the restaurant, where New Orleans rapper Rob49 was reportedly among the victims.
At press time it was unclear where Montana was during the shooting, though it appears that he was not injured in the incident; a spokesperson for Montana could not be reached for comment at press time and a public information officer for the Miami-Dade PD had not returned a request for an update on the investigation at press time. TMZ reported that a witness said Montana’s security team hustled the MC out of the area safely and without incident after the gunfire erupted.
Mogul also shared a video with a local NBC affiliate that he said showed Montana, wearing a red shirt, sitting in the back seat of a car and looking at some wardrobe options reportedly filmed just prior to the shooting.
Montana dropped the latest edition of his long-running Coke Boys series, Coke Boys 6, on Friday morning (Jan. 6), featuring guest spots from A$AP Rocky, Benny the Butcher, Kodak Black, Max B, King Combs, Est Gee, Jeremih and more. The rapper promoted the mixtape on Thursday morning in Instagram and Twitter posts, but did not appear to have commented on the shooting incident on his socials at press time.
