William Sahms, who works at Babe's Cabaret, a half-block from where Justin Schaubert was shot, shared Pinkeee's sentiment.
"This wasn't the NOPD being trigger-happy," Sahms said. "They did the right thing, 100 percent."
Police accounts emphasized Schaubert's behavior in the Bourbon Street Blues Company immediately before he ran out of the club, pointed his gun and was shot by a uniformed officer. On Monday, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas called the death tragic but said that his officer "defended himself and the public around him."
But accounts passing along the city's legendary entertainment strip on Monday had it that Schaubert, a gun-toting man from New Iberia, flashed his large-caliber gun inside several Bourbon Street clubs before running outside the Bourbon Street Blues Company and firing at the officer and bouncers.
Police said Schaubert ran from the Bourbon Street Blues Company after bouncers admonished him to put his shirt back on. But bartenders, barkers and strippers said on Monday that Schaubert, who had completely unbuttoned his shirt at several points, had earlier tried at another club to get a Jell-O shot without paying by showing the gun tucked into his waistband. They said he also flashed the firearm in other clubs.''
''Sunday morning's incident felt like an isolated event that couldn't have been handled any other way, said Earl Bernhardt, who owns Tropical Isle and five other clubs along the street. "It was just some nut who committed an act of violence," he said. "That, unfortunately, happens all across the country."
Still, the incident made clear that Bourbon Street is not a place for the weak-kneed.''
