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Local authorities are working with investigators in Miami to determine whether gun violence in south Florida this past weekend — leaving one bystander dead and a number of others injured outside the Trump International Beach Resort on Sunday afternoon — resulted from ongoing feuds among rival rappers from Baton Rouge. 

A woman identified as the girlfriend of Baton Rouge rapper NBA YoungBoy was shot in the shoulder but is expected to survive her injuries. She was with NBA YoungBoy when the shooting occurred, and he was in Miami to perform at the Rolling Loud music festival, according to The Associated Press.

Gunmen in a passing Cadillac Escalade shot at NBA YoungBoy and several of his associates Sunday afternoon. Then legally armed members of his entourage returned fire, with one of their bullets killing the bystander, The AP reported. 

Police are also investigating whether the Sunday shootout is connected to other gun violence in and around Miami last weekend.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III on Wednesday confirmed the focus of the investigation but declined to provide specifics about the individuals and groups in question. 

"We're looking to see who else from Baton Rouge may have been involved," he said. "If it was all Baton Rouge people, we surely know the connections." 

Moore said it's his understanding that Miami authorities are now looking to question NBA YoungBoy about the weekend shootings, but that hasn't happened yet. The rapper's current whereabouts are unclear. 

This isn't the first time Baton Rouge rappers have resorted to gun violence in what authorities suspect are ongoing beefs. But it could be the first time those feuds have followed them across state lines and attracted a national audience. 

Several local rappers and their associates have been fatally shot over the past few years — most recently Blvd Quick in November 2018. Authorities have said they're investigating whether he was targeted because of his affiliation with the better known Baton Rouge rapper Gee Money, who was himself killed in September 2017. Both those cases remain unsolved.

NBA YoungBoy's agent, Desmond "Dump" Hardnett, was shot and killed in May 2018, another case that hasn't been solved.

Gee Money, whose real name was Garrett Burton, was once friends with NBA YoungBoy growing up in Baton Rouge. But the two had been "beefing" — including posting disparaging songs about each other on social media — in the months leading up to Burton's death. Social media posts suggest the animosity grew between them when NBA YoungBoy expressed displeasure that his former friend had slept with his sister. 

The that Florida investigators are hoping to question yet another Baton Rouge rapper, Fredo Bang, who has also been feuding with NBA YoungBoy and may have been in south Florida over the weekend. Fredo Bang was close to Gee Money before his death and has produced music under the same record label, according to his social media accounts. 

Ron Haley, a Baton Rouge attorney representing Fredo Bang, said his client moved to the Miami area about a year ago and has lived there ever since. Haley said law enforcement hasn't been in contact with Fredo Bang, whose real name is Fredrick Givens, but that Givens would cooperate with investigators because "he has absolutely nothing to hide" and adamantly denies involvement in the weekend shootings.

Givens moved to Florida after his release from custody last year, in part to remove himself from dangerous situations that could arise in Baton Rouge, according to his attorney. Givens had pleaded guilty to illegal use of weapons and simple criminal damage to property in a 2015 shooting outside a Baton Rouge apartment complex. 

"He's in a good place now, staying out of trouble," Haley said. "Making music is his priority. Engaging in these beefs is not."

NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, is set to appear in court Friday in Baton Rouge when state District Judge Bonnie Jackson will consider prosecutors' latest request to revoke his probation in a 2016 shooting case that authorities believe was also retaliation for the death of another teenage rapper earlier that year.

Gaulden, 19, was sentenced to three years' probation with a suspended 10-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm. One of the conditions of his probation was that he remain free of additional arrests and convictions.

Prosecutors' latest request for revocation, which would send him to prison for the remainder of his sentence, cites his Feb. 11 arrest in Atlanta — his second arrest in two years. It also refers to Gaulden as "a threat to society and the safety of others." 

Moore said prosecutors aren't planning to file a new request in light of the Florida shooting investigation, but it's possible the judge will take those recent developments into account. He said another question is whether Gaulden will show up for his court hearing: "We have no idea if he's coming." 

Follow Lea Skene on Twitter, @lea_skene.

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