Several luxury cars were riddled by bullets early Monday outside a northwest Atlanta recording studio complex that houses an office connected to embattled rapper Rick Ross.
The shooting happened about 4 a.m. in the parking lot of Twelve Studios on Defoor Hills Road, according to Atlanta police dispatchers.
A late-model Corvette, a Mercedes CL63 that retails for over $150,000 and an Infiniti G35 were damaged by the gunfire, which happened just outside Twelve Music Group and UDigg Studios.
The AJC previously reported Ross was opening an office in the Twelve Studios complex, which is in an industrial area off Collier Road. A door outside the complex features a drawing of Ross and two shovels.
There was no indication Ross was involved in the shooting or at the studio at the time of the incident, according to an Atlanta police incident report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a statement, Twelve Studios distanced itself from the shooting.
“This isolated and random incident is not affiliated with Twelve Studios, any of our staff members or clients; including Rick Ross,” the statement reads. “This is the first time in over three years that we have been affected by any criminal activity regarding our property.”
According to the Atlanta police incident report, two women told police they were inside one of the music studios when they “heard (a) loud noise that sounded like fireworks but were actually gunshots.”
One of the women told police she went to check on her vehicle when she saw shattered glass on the floor in the studio.
Officers found eight .40-caliber shell casings in the street in front of the studio. Three cars were damaged by the gunfire, which also shattered a glass window of the building, according to police. No injuries were reported.
Ross, whose real name is William Leonard Roberts II, has been in the news multiple times in recent weeks.
He was arrested June 24 on kidnapping and other charges after allegedly assaulting two service workers who reportedly threw a birthday party without his consent at his 235-acre Fayetteville estate, a home that was once owned by boxer Evander Holyfield.
Ross and his bodyguard, Nadrian James, allegedly took the workers into a guesthouse on the property and attacked them. The rapper, authorities said, beat one of the workers in the head and face with a Glock handgun, chipped the man’s teeth and injured his jaw so badly that he was “restricted to soft foods and liquid diet.”
Ross, 39, was granted bond last week after agreeing to forfeit ownership of the property if he violates the conditions of his bond by intimidating a witness or obstructing justice, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The alleged assault was Ross' second run-in with Fayette law enforcement since June 10, when police found five joints in his car and arrested him on a misdemeanor marijuana charge.
The founder of Maybach Music Group, Ross is perhaps best known for his 2006 single “Hustlin’.” He bought the palatial estate formerly owned by Holyfield for $5.8 million in January 2014. The house — considered to be the largest single-family home in Georgia — has 109 rooms, a movie theater, an Olympic-size swimming pool and a separate 4,000-square-foot guest home.
— Reporter Daniel Funke contributed to this report.
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