Celeb Chef Shot Inside Club Mansion On South Beach
MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) - Miami Beach Police are looking for a gunman after a celebrity chef with ties to the Miami Heat is shot and killed inside the South Beach hot spot Club Mansion.
Police say the victim is Antuan Teasley, 42, of North Bay Village.
Teasley's social media pages show he is a celebrity chef who has worked for numerous athletes and ran Young Chef Catering. Most recently he worked as a personal chef for Miami Heat guard Norris Cole.
Teasley also used to be a personal chef for Mario Chalmers of the Miami Heat.
"He was a close friend. He was my chef when I first got down here. It's tough. I send my condolences to his family and his kids. Hopefully they will be ok," said Chalmers.
Friends describe Teasley as a genuine man with an uplifting personality.
"The world has lost a really kind man," said Adrienne Gershon. "Kind, generous, fun, just a really lovely person."
Police say they have interviewed at least six witnesses but have not arrested anyone in connection to the shooting.
According to investigators, a shot was fired in the VIP section of the club after a fight broke out just before 4:00 a.m Tuesday morning. People around the injured man went to help him and called 9-1-1. When Miami Beach Fire arrived they found him inside the club near the VIP entrance. He was taken to the Ryder Trauma Center where he died.
Hernandez said it is not known if Teasley was the intended target of the shooting.
Club goers said after the shot was fired, there was massive confusion.
"I was standing in the VIP and there was like a bang noise, like a gun, and I looked over right in the VIP and everybody started getting down and running and I was like there's no way on Earth that this is gunshots. So we're standing there and then everybody started running and security started coming," said Nefratari Tomalo.
"We heard a noise and somebody behind me ducked down on me and everybody started ducking and running away," said Shala White.
To add to the confusion, after the gunshot the deejay at one point told the crowd to keep partying.
"The deejay was like 'No it's not a gunshot, everybody just relax, relax' and then they (security) cut the music off," said Tomalo.
Other people who were in the club said because of the crowd and loud music they didn't even realize there had been a shooting. They only realized what had happened after security got on the stage and ordered everyone out.
Residents and tourists said they were surprised that such an incident could have happened.
"In a club like Mansion you'd think people were getting checked for guns and stuff," said Tomalo.
A spokeswoman for the Opium Group which owns Club Mansion said she had no comment.
The new Miami Beach Police Chief Dan Oates came to the crime scene but had no comment. He is beingsworn in on Wednesday.
Anyone with information about this shooting is urged to call Miami-Dade Crimestoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).
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