The new joint task force that Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced earlier this month after 28 people were injured in a nightclub shooting in Little Rock is focusing on disrupting gangs and is being headed by the FBI, federal officials say.

The July 1 shooting at the Power Ultra Lounge drew statewide and national attention. The task force has 10 participating agencies and includes authorities from the local, state and federal level.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Givens said the task force has been out on the street and is targeting gangs, which he said are responsible in part for an uptick in violent crime in Little Rock. The group, known as the Gang Enforcement Team Rock Task Force, will not be focused only on the people involved in the nightclub shooting, but on anybody involved with violent crime in Little Rock, he said.

Patrick Harris, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, said authorities are using the nightclub shooting as a starting point for a broader investigation.

"So we are trying to figure out who did the shooting. But from that, we're backing up and figuring out who there is causing problems in the community, who there is involved in drugs or who there is involved in guns or violence. And so it's kind of expanding," Harris said.

While the FBI is the lead agency, Harris said Little Rock police are an integral part of the investigative force.

Unlike other efforts between local and federal authorities, Givens said the task force will be an ongoing effort and authorities will not wait to act if a shooting or other violent crime occurs.

"This is a unique effort," he said, adding that 10 agencies working together makes the task force distinctive.

At a news conference after the nightclub shooting, Police Chief Kenton Buckner said "rival groups," which he also referred to as gangs, had opened fire after a dispute during at rap concert at the Power Ultra Lounge in downtown Little Rock.

"I am confident with this multiagency group that the city and our state will see significant outcomes," Buckner said in an interview Thursday.

One person has been arrested in the July 1 shooting. Kentrell Dominique Gwynn, a bodyguard for the Memphis rapper performing that night, was arrested on charges related to the nightclub shooting and another shooting in Forrest City.

Gwynn has been charged with providing armed security to a convicted felon, providing a firearm to a convicted felon or an unlawful user of a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit those crimes, according to a federal complaint. There was a preliminary match of a firearm found with Gwynn on July 2 and a shell casing found at the scene of the Power Ultra Lounge shooting, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.

Rapper Ricky Hampton, who was onstage when the gunfire broke out at the Little Rock nightclub, has been arrested on a federal gun charge in an incident outside a club in Forrest City. A federal judge has ordered Hampton, who performs as Finese2Tymes, to remain in custody until his trial on the federal gun charge.

The investigative force is composed of at least 20 people, according to Harris.

The participating agencies are the Little Rock Police Department; the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Arkansas State Police; Arkansas Community Correction; the U.S. attorney's office; the Pulaski County sheriff's office; and the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney's office.

Department heads from the participating agencies decided to have the FBI lead the task force, Harris said.

Harris said it's "atypical" to have so many agencies working on one mission together, something that highlights the seriousness of the problem.

"There were [25] people shot," he said. "That's a big deal, and I think it illustrates that we need to focus on what caused this. We need the people involved. What else are they doing? How do we get those people off the streets and how do we prosecute those people?"

Gang activity in Little Rock attracted national attention in the 1990s after the release of the HBO documentary "Gang War: Bangin' In Little Rock."

In the 1990s, gangs were more territorial and based in neighborhoods, said Lt. Steve McClanahan, a Police Department spokesman. While the criminal activity remains the same, gangs nowadays are more fragmented, he said.

The department does its best to monitor gangs, McClanahan said. He said police receive little cooperation from gang members regarding crimes, and they have been known to take matters into their own hands.

As an example of recent gang violence, police have said a double shooting June 24 on Montclair Road involved two rival groups.

In a surge this year, there have been 1,977 incidents of violent crime -- homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault -- as of July 24, a 20 percent increase compared with the same time period last year, according to preliminary Police Department data.

Harris said the task force is not interested in just charging offenders with federal or state crimes, but also will review the evidence to see which charges will put them behind bars for the longest period of time.

"So what we're trying to do is figure out who are these people causing all this violence, all this chaos," he said.

"This ain't over till we say it's over," Harris said.

Information for this article was contributed by Linda Satter and Scott Carroll of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Metro on 07/30/2017