Baton Rouge shooting starts due to man's "Florida Gators gear"

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A bachelor’s party at a Baton Rouge club early Friday morning was cut short after a comment on a stranger’s Florida Gators attire led to a car chase and a drive-by shooting.

Everett L. Beauchamp IV, 32, was at The Penthouse Club on Bennington Avenue around 2:15 a.m. when one of six men at a bachelor’s party made an unwanted comment on Beauchamp’s Florida Gators gear, the Baton Rouge Police Department report says.

In response, Beauchamp picked up a stool at the valet entrance to the club and tried to assault the man who made the comment, but he was stopped.

Beauchamp threatened to get a weapon and walked to his vehicle to get a handgun, the report says, at which time the men drove away in their vehicle.

Beauchamp followed them in his 2013 Ford Raptor down College Drive onto I-10 eastbound, the report says. The men exited at Essen Lane, only to get back onto I-10 going westbound, at which point Beauchamp tried to ram his vehicle into theirs.

Beauchamp followed them onto the interstate and as they reached the I-10 westbound, I-12 eastbound loop Beauchamp opened fire on their vehicle, striking the vehicle once under the driver’s side taillight.

The men only lost Beauchamp after they exited the interstate at Dalrymple Drive, according to the report.

Shortly before 3 a.m. uniform patrolers found an impaired Beauchamp and his vehicle after he drove his truck into the LSU Lakes at East Lakeshore near Stanford Avenue, according to the report.

Beauchamp told police he had consumed between eight and 10 Corona beers, the report says. A breath test revealed that his blood alcohol level was 0.19.

Police found a Taurus .45 caliber handgun at the scene.

Beauchamp, 5010 Mancuso Lane Apt. 115, was booked into Parish Prison on six counts of assault by drive-by shooting, one count of aggravated criminal damage to property, DWI, reckless driving, failure to maintain control and one count of illegal use of a weapon.

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