Rapper French Montana has been blamed by the Miami police for a shoot-out on Thursday, January 5th, outside The Licking restaurant.
According to TMZ, the Miami Gardens Police chief believes the Grammy-nominated artist was producing a video shoot when ten people were injured by the gunplay.
Officials allege the artist’s company needed to complete the proper paperwork to ensure everything aligned with the city’s policy but did not.
Chief Delma Noel-Pratt said French and Co., the artist’s company that set up the video shoot, did not fill out an application to obtain the necessary production permits, which violates city policy.
The chief said, “As a result of this disregard of the procedures, the unauthorized music video production led to an unfortunate situation.”
He added, “If the necessary agencies were notified ahead of time and protocol followed, police officers would have been in place to safeguard the community and assist with deterring and responding, if needed, to any situation that may arise.”
However, the artist believes he is not to blame and says he wasn’t shooting a music video. Instead, he says he was “celebrating the release of my CB6 mixtape w/ friends at a local restaurant.”
The violence was not predictable and just happened, according to French Montana. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.