GOOD SHOOT
According to an arrest report, Miami police responded on July 7 to an Upper East Side apartment complex near the 7800 block of Northeast 10th Avenue, where they found a man in body armor wielding a gun and firing into the air. Witnesses told officers that the man, who police later identified as Christian Labaut, announced he was celebrating the new law while spraying a hail of bullets.
Police say an officer asked Labaut to stop shooting his rifle and show his hands. The officer, according to the arrest report, kept giving commands, but Labaut ran off into the apartment’s hallways.
The officer, whose name is redacted in the report, then shot Labaut “several times,” according to police. Labaut was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, where he was being treated until his arrest.
Since the incident, Labaut has been treated for his injuries at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. Police have been unable to arrest him until now. Labaut was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a short barrel rifle, and resisting an officer. He was also charged with 48 counts of discharging a firearm in public, according to prison records.
The permitless carry law, which took effect on July 1, allows people to carry concealed guns in public without training and removes additional background checks. It was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April.
While Labaut clearly felt the need to celebrate the bill’s passing, not everyone agrees with permitless open carry. In March, a poll conducted by the University of North Florida showed 77 percent of the 1,492 respondents were somewhat or strongly opposed to the permitless carry legislation, a number that included 62 percent of Republicans, as well as 93 percent of Democrats.
Pedro Labaut, the defendants brother told us in July, “I look at the kitchen door he’s in the kitchen floor bleeding unconscious with a bullet. They shot him in the back and a puddle of blood – I thought he was dead.”
