One of the men whom Shia LaBeouf allegedly battered and insulted with a homophobic slur on Mardi Gras morning in New Orleans on Tuesday, leading to his arrest, would like to see the actor face hate crime charges.

Jeffrey Damnit, who dresses in drag and was in makeup at the time of the encounter with LaBeouf, said on Thursday that the behavior attributed to the Transformers film franchise star was “a complete slap in the face to any alternative-culture person”.

He said that he hoped prosecutors in Louisiana’s most famous city would pursue charges under a state hate crimes law, which allows for enhanced penalties against anyone who is found to have victimized another person on the “actual or perceived” basis of sex or gender, among other categories.

“Due to his fame, if he gets away without serious consequence, anyone who looks up to him or even just knows of him will think it is OK to do the same,” Damnit said, two days after LaBeouf was ordered released from authorities’ custody without needing to post bond.

“They will think you can call someone ‘faggot’, punch him a few times, get a free room for the night and be back out partying by noon the next day.”

LaBeouf was approached for comment on Thursday about the allegations against him. The actor remarked: “Get your ass up out of here, you silly bitch.”

Those brief comments appeared to be his first in response to his arrest at the R Bar in New Orleans’s Marigny section in connection to sworn police allegations that he punched Damnit and a second man while repeatedly insulting both with the word “faggot”.

The Guardian, which viewed a video showing LaBeouf using the word “faggot” at the time of his arrest, had made multiple attempts to contact the actor and his representatives to respond to the allegations against him. They did not reply or decline comment, so the Guardian approached LaBeouf at a New Orleans home address listed for him in the police report generated by his arrest.

LaBeouf’s front door was wide open when a Guardian reporter equipped with a press badge, pen and notepad arrived at the address. The actor was speaking with a locksmith. The two men soon walked out, and LaBeouf asked: “What’s up with you?” when he realized the reporter was standing toward the edge of his home’s small front yard.

After being given the opportunity to respond to the allegations against him, LaBeouf gestured as if waving the journalist away and said: “Get your ass up out of here, you silly bitch.” He then screamed: “Yeah – I’m Shia LaBeouf,” as the reporter complied with his request to leave.

Police allege that LaBeouf became increasingly aggressive on the day of his arrest at R Bar, which is a short walk from New Orleans’s renowned French Quarter.

Court documents state that LaBeouf tried to punch a bar manager who was trying to escort him out of the business. Once removed, LaBeouf allegedly punched the 49-year-old Damnit – who was helping the bar manager – in his upper body.

LaBeouf subsequently returned and punched Nathan Thomas Reed, 34, in the nose, though the latter man had said he did not want to fight, officers alleged in the police report. The police report noted that LaBeouf was alleged to have aimed the word “faggot” at Reed and Damnit repeatedly.

Damnit, an actor and frequent New Orleans visitor from Los Angeles, was wearing mascara, eyeshadow and lipstick at the time of his encounter with LaBeouf. Social media pictures show Damnit – whose given last name is Klein – having celebrated Mardi Gras in drag.

Reed, meanwhile, says he identifies as queer.

Bystanders ultimately held LaBeouf down until police and paramedics arrived, officers reported. He was taken to a hospital, discharged and then booked with two counts of simple battery.

After his release from jail, LaBeouf was seen partying on Bourbon Street, a lively spot during New Orleans’s Mardi Gras revelry. He had Mardi Gras beads around his neck and danced with his jail release papers in his mouth at one point.

LaBeouf has had several previous brushes with the criminal and civil court systems. During a 2017 disorderly conduct arrest in Savannah, Georgia, which led to a court-mandated rehab stint, LaBeouf was recorded accusing police of being racist and saying a Black officer on the scene was going to hell.

While being arrested in 2014 over allegations that he disrupted a Broadway show in New York City, LaBeouf was accused of using the homophobic slur “fag” to insult a police officer.

It will be much easier to shoot deer in England under government plans that aim to curb the damage the animals are doing to the country’s woodlands.

Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, plans to bring forward new legislation to give landowners and tenants legal rights to shoot deer to protect crops and property.

Because there are no natural predators in England, deer are able to breed quickly and without any population controls. Four non-native deer species – muntjac, Chinese water deer, fallow and sika – have been introduced into the wild and have thrived. Only two deer species present in England, the red and roe, are native.

Overpopulation of deer causes problems for woodland: they eat leaves, buds and sapling stalks, and strip bark from mature trees, which can affect the trees’ health and make them susceptible to disease. Some deer, particularly the sika, rake their antlers against trees, which can kill younger wood.

The government’s legally binding environment targets require it to regenerate woodland equivalent to a net increase of 43,000 hectares (106,255 acres), which will be difficult if the deer population continues to expand. Government figures show 33% of English woodlands are now in unfavourable condition due to the impact of deer, up from 24% in the early 2000s.

The government has mostly focused on protecting trees with guards and fences rather than tackling the deer population. Now, it is announcing a change of approach. Under the plans, all publicly owned or managed land will have deer management plans within 10 years.

National priority areas – where deer are extremely populous and are having a very detrimental impact on woodland – will be identified, with culls targeted there.

There will also be a change to the grant system that pays landowners to shoot deer. Under the new scheme, landowners can be paid to shoot deer when the animals move out of wooded areas, making it easier to target a problematic population, said Emma Dear, the principal officer for tree establishment at Natural England.

She told the Guardian: “This means we can have timely interventions when ecological damage is likely to be greatest. There is an issue because of the way deer move through the landscape and are not constrained to one patch. The grant system was only facilitated in the woodlands; the new strategy will address that.”

Dear added that the lack of natural predators was driving the rise in the deer population across England. Wolves, bears, lynx and other apex predators were hunted to extinction many years ago. Climate breakdown is also a factor.

“Deer are changing their behaviour because of warmer winters. They can overwinter in better conditions and the number of babies they have is higher when the winter is warmer,” Dear said.

Defra sources said there would be a particular focus on reducing the muntjac population as these were listed as an invasive species, and the agency will assess sika and Chinese water deer to see if these can be added to the invasive species list and urgently targeted. These are the three deer species deemed to be causing the most damage.

The nature minister, Mary Creagh, said: “Our trees and native wildlife are under huge strain from deer damage, including from non-native deer species. This government is helping landowners and farmers manage deer impacts more effectively so woodlands can flourish and crops are better protected. These new measures will also help restore nature, boost our homegrown timber industry and protect the millions of trees we are planting across the country.”

The culled deer may be eaten, with Defra looking at how to market and safely get the meat into the supply chain.

Dear said: “There is a section of the strategy that is looking at venison marketing and supporting that industry. Supporting the wild venison sector will hopefully reduce the cost of management.”

While the spotlight has been on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his arrest has prompted questions about what is next for his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.

Ferguson, known by the tabloids as Fergie, married the then prince Andrew in 1986 and was divorced from him 10 years later after an alleged affair with an American financial adviser. It was one of multiple scandals in the 1990s and 2000s involving the former duchess, who was widely considered an embarrassment to the royal family.

Ferguson has stood by Mountbatten-Windsor through waves of allegations produced by his links to Jeffrey Epstein, though she was yet to comment on his arrest on Thursday.

She has previously described him as “amazing” and said they were “the happiest divorced couple in the world”, later rejecting the claims against him and calling his alleged victim Virginia Giuffre a liar.

While Ferguson’s ties to Mountbatten-Windsor have kept her adjacent to the Epstein scandal, it is her own closeness to the convicted sex offender that is threatening to make her persona non grata in the public sphere as more details come to light.

News of the former prince’s arrest came only days after it was revealed that six of Ferguson’s businesses are set to be struck off the register of Companies House, after becoming dormant. It is not clear what each of them did, but one appeared to be a public relations business, while another appeared to be in the retail sector.

Ferguson, whose money problems have been well documented over the years, and who has struggled to be financially independent, exchanged many emails with Epstein, even after he was convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

A string of revelations have uncovered Ferguson’s financial ties – even an alleged dependence – on Epstein. The allegations have also opened up questions about the funding of the lifestyles of her daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, now in their 30s, who were pictured going on lavish holidays during their 20s while working relatively low-paid jobs.

Ferguson has been involved in several scandals that appeared to be attempts to cash in on her royal connections, including two tell-all memoirs, in 1996 and 2011, and in 2010 when she was exposed in a News of the World sting operation attempting to sell access to her former husband in return for £500,000. She told Mazher Mahmood, who was undercover as the “Fake Sheikh”, that she would “open any door you want”, promising him he would get his investment back tenfold.

Later apologising for the scandal, Ferguson said it was “true my finances are under stress”.

The Epstein files, the tranche of documents gathered by US authorities in the investigation into the disgraced financier, have shown some of the extent to which she financially depended on the friendship with him, including evidence he wired Ferguson $150,000 (£104,000) in 2001, which she said was for share options she had earned as an “ambassador” for Weight Watchers, which had gone public earlier that year.

She initially claimed to have cut ties with Epstein as soon as she became aware of the allegations against him in 2006. However, emails contained in the US department of justice files showed she maintained her closeness with him.

“Cannot wait to see you,” she wrote in one email in 2009. Another email between Epstein and his assistant showed he paid $14,080 to fly Ferguson and her two daughters, then 19 and 20, to the US for lunch.

Days later she wrote to him: “Thank you Jeffrey for being the brother I have always wished for.”

The following year, in another email, she wrote: “You are a legend.” Later in the same email, she added: “I am at your service. Just marry me.”

Nine months later, Ferguson publicly apologised for her association with him, saying in an interview with the Evening Standard newspaper: “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf.”

But in private, the former duchess emailed Epstein to “humbly apologise” for denouncing him publicly, calling him “a supreme friend to me and my family”.

Later, when the conversation became public, she told the media she had sent that email to him to “assuage Epstein and his threats”.

When the US government released the first tranche of Epstein files in September last year, a number of charities associated with the then duchess cut ties with her, including the Teenage Cancer Trust and the children’s hospice Julia’s House, both of which she was patron.

The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation issued a statement saying the charity was “disturbed” to read her comments, and also dropped her as a patron.

Nothing uncovered in the files has indicated any criminal activity by Ferguson, who appeared to stop using the duchess title when her ex-husband was stripped of his title, though it may be one scandal too many.