French Montana Facing $50,000 Lawsuit Over Music Video Shooting
Multi-platinum rapper French Montana is being sued months after one of his music video shoots in Florida ended in a hail of bullets.
Carl Leon, who was an extra during the video shoot in January, claims that the rapper did not do enough to prevent the injury of at least ten people. French’s attorney denies the allegations and states that Leon’s claim is a “profit play and a publicity stunt.” Leon alleges in his lawsuit that the Montana music video shooting was a “preventable, foreseeable incident” if Montana and his label had received the correct permits for video production. Leon is also suing the restaurant and Gayles Plaza, which owns the strip where the shooting occurred.
As many as ten people were shot on Jan. 5 in The Licking Restaurant in the Miami Gardens parking lot, where French Montana and rapper Rob49 were filming a music video for the song “Igloo.” An unidentified man opened fire with an assault rifle, barricading himself with a $400,000 car used as a prop.
“It was an extremely unfortunate situation that led to multiple people suffering serious injuries,” Leon’s attorney Josiah Graham, tells Rolling Stone. “The most egregious thing is that people were beaten up and robbed at this video shoot and the [production] did not shut down. “Montana continued to video shoot, moved it across the street, and those assailants returned and shot the place up,” he adds. “Things like that should not be able to go on.”
Leon’s attorney stated in the suit that his client has suffered “great bodily injury, pain, mental anguish, and loss of the capacity for the enjoyment of life” and is seeking $50,000 in addition to legal fees.