BALTIMORE — The owner of a South Baltimore music studio and lounge has been charged with fatally shooting his stepson — a musician and one of the studio’s engineers — inside the business last week.
Michael Joseph, 43, known as “King Cutty,” was charged with murder and taken into custody at the scene Friday after police were called to the Gold Room, in the 100 block of Baltic Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
Police arrived just after midnight and were let into the business by Joseph, who directed them to the second floor where Kamari Ivery-Williams, 25, was laying on his side and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the body, according to police charging documents.
A handgun, later determined to be registered to Joseph, was found on a table, records show. When officers asked people inside the business where the shooter went, Joseph walked up to a patrol officer, placed his hands behind his back, and said, “It was me,” detectives wrote in charging documents. No motive was given.
Tony Krav, who worked as an engineer at the Gold Room but was not present when the shooting occurred, said that Ivery-Williams, who rapped as KingK Gambino, was a talented musician who had earned his way to becoming one of the in-house engineers.
“I’ve been teaching him for the past three years on everything — he definitely elevated quickly,” Krav said. “Everybody loved King (Williams). Everybody he came into contact with loved him to death.”
Relatives could not be reached for comment, but a woman who identified herself as his sister wrote on Facebook that Joseph was Ivery-Williams’ stepfather.
Krav said people who knew both Joseph and Ivery-Williams are “torn up about” the shooting. “It’s a lot,” he said.
The Gold Room and Media Studio LLC was formally registered to Joseph in December. He has also been a barber since 1991.
No attorney was listed in court records for Joseph, who has no prior arrests in electronic court records. He was ordered held without bond at a bail review hearing on Tuesday.
