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La. Attorney General to go to EBR school board after rapper connected to Bleedas gang visits school

1 day 4 hours 36 seconds ago Saturday, March 22 2025 Mar 22, 2025 March 22, 2025 4:39 PM March 22, 2025 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she planned to visit the East Baton Rouge school board after a rapper with connections to the Bleedas gang visited his Baton Rouge alma mater and recorded a video with students imitating gunfire.

WBRZ reported Friday that David Catherine, known as RealBleeda, stopped by Park Forest Middle School to donate snacks for the upcoming LEAP tests as well as a PlayStation 5 to the school's esports program. 

A video was also filmed by Catherine featuring students dancing with Catherine in the Park Forest Middle gym. The video, posted on TikTok on Wednesday, showed children briefly joining the rapper in imitating pointing a gun at the camera.

Court records show Catherine, 22, is out on bond for a January drug and weapons arrest. He has been arrested for drug and gun charges multiple times over the past few years. Law enforcement also confirmed that Catherine is a member of the Bleedas gang.

Catherine's appearance at Park Forest was not sanctioned by the East Baton Rouge Parish School District as visits to schools are usually done on a school-by-school basis, a district spokesperson said Friday.

Murrill spoke to WBRZ saying that Catherine going onto the middle school violated education laws.

"I want to understand how somebody with known gang affiliations can just show up to a school and walk on campus and make a video with kids without their knowledge or consent," Murrill said.

The attorney general also criticized the video Catherine filed, saying kids were "participating in a video that mimics another video promoting gang violence that used offensive and racist language." She also said she didn't "know whose idea it was to use our schools as recruiting grounds for gangs."

Additionally, Murrill claimed that Principal Xavier Rawls-Stromile was advised by the school resource officer not to invite Catherine onto the campus; A school source speaking on condition of anonymity said Friday that the principal only knew Catherine as a rap artist and was not aware of any alleged involvement in illegal activities. 

"I believe [Rawls-Stromile] did know that this was someone under indictment in East Baton Rouge Parish and was known to be affiliated with gangs," Murrill said. "His Instagram handle identifies him as such, and just decided to do it anyway. Even if he didn't know, it was exceptionally bad judgement."

Murrill said she wanted the school board to explain to her why their policy allowed Rawls-Stromile to invite Catherine onto the campus. She also said she wanted the school board to understand and urge them to adopt a policy "that's more protective of our kids."

"There needs to be consequences for the people who exercised just bad judgement, too," Murrill said.

School Board President Shashonnie Steward issued a statement Saturday saying she plans on contacting Murrill to discuss her concerns regarding visitor access to schools and district policy.

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