Authorities were probing the possibility that the shooting of Suge Knight early today at a pre-Video Music Awards party hosted by singer Chris Brown might have been gang-related, according to reports.

While TMZ says that a possible gang rivalry might have sparked the violence at 1Oak nightclub on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, RadarOnline says it was possible that attackers were on the same side of the gang divide and were unhappy that Brown had left their clique.

The attack in the 9000 block of Sunset Boulevard was reported at …

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 … 1:36 a.m., according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies would say only that nonfatal shooting victims included a 49-year-old man, presumably Knight, as well as a 32-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman.

“They were transported to local hospitals and they are expected to recover,” the sheriff's department said in a statement.

Knight was seen being put into a sheriff's cruiser before he was taken to a hospital for treatment of his wounds.

TMZ says that Brown, sporting a red bandana of the type worn by Bloods gang members, was throwing up gang signs just before shots rang out inside the venue.

Knight has also been linked to the Bloods, and party-goer the Game, another reported Blood affiliate, got into a scuffle as he tried to enter the party earlier, according to several accounts.

RadarOnline says that Brown, after finishing a stint in rehab, was trying to clean up his act and distance himself from friends who were Bloods. According to this story line, those gangsters weren't happy and were aiming at the singer when Knight was shot.

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