Baton Rouge rapper NBA YoungBoy, 15 others arrested during video shoot

Baton Rouge rapper NBA YoungBoy was arrested Monday night and 15 others were taken into custody during a video shoot, police said.

The rapper, Kentrell Gaulden, was booked Tuesday into East Baton Rouge Parish prison on several drug and weapon counts. He was taken into custody after the Baton Rouge Police Street Crimes Division and FBI agents received anonymous complaints of people brandishing guns in an abandoned lot and investigated the incident, according to BRPD spokesperson Sgt. L'Jean McKneely Jr.

Officers arrived at 3866 Chippewa St. around 4:30pm Monday evening to find members of the “Never Broke Again” (NBA) and “Bottom Boy Gorilla” (BBG) groups — police described them as "gangs" — gathered at the lot shooting a video, according to Gaulden’s arrest documents.

When officers arrived, some at the scene ran away while others were detained for questioning. Authorities seized drugs, guns and a large amount of money throughout the evening, McKneely said.

A total of 16 people were arrested, 14 guns were confiscated, including one that was stolen and two with illegal stocks, and $79,000 dollars was seized.

Gaulden rose to national acclaim as a teenager growing up in Baton Rouge, though his success has been marred with violence and drama.

He served 90 days in jail the summer of 2019 after state District Judge Bonnie Jackson handed down a temporary probation hold in a 2016 nonfatal shooting case. Prosecutors had moved to revoke his probation entirely, which would have sent him to prison for 10 years, following his involvement in a shootout in Miami Mother's Day 2019 that left a bystander dead.

The judge had given Gaulden a suspended 10-year prison term in August 2017 and put him on probation for three years after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm in the 2016 shooting. But Jackson decided last December that the rapper had served enough time under court supervision and released him.

Gaulden's attorney, James Manasseh, said in a statement Tuesday that Gaulden's most recent arrest was a violation of his Constitutional rights, accusing arresting officers of conducting illegal searches. Manasseh said police detained more than a dozen "young Black men solely based on an alleged tip that firearms were present on the scene." Gaulden is prohibited from possessing a firearm.

"Even with the illegal searches that were conducted, no firearms or controlled dangerous substances were found on Mr. Gaulden's person or in his immediate control," his attorney said. "It is important to remember that when someone is arrested for a crime, it does not mean they are guilty of anything."