Donald Joseph, a 55-year-old Black man from Rocky Mount, was killed on the night of November 26, 2023, after violence erupted inside the All Round Huzlerz motorcycle club at 309 Tarboro Street. At approximately 9:35 p.m., Rocky Mount police officers were dispatched to the building after receiving a report of a shooting with injuries. Investigators determined that an altercation had taken place inside the club before gunfire broke out.
Joseph was struck during the shooting, turning what had begun as a confrontation among people gathered inside the establishment into a fatal crime scene.
Police said the person who shot Joseph was someone he knew, indicating that the gunfire was not believed to have been a random attack by a stranger. No other people were reported wounded. Emergency medical personnel and other first responders attempted lifesaving measures, but Joseph’s injuries were too severe, and he died at the scene. Authorities secured the motorcycle club, gathered evidence and began interviewing people who may have witnessed the altercation or the moments leading up to the shooting.
During the initial stage of the investigation, police did not publicly identify a suspect or announce an immediate arrest. Investigators appealed to members of the public for information, particularly anyone who had been inside or near the club that night and could help explain how the dispute began, who possessed a firearm and what happened immediately before Joseph was shot. For months, the case remained publicly unresolved while detectives continued working to establish responsibility for his death.
The investigation eventually led police to Artayia L. Cooper. In July 2024, approximately eight months after the killing, Rocky Mount police arrested Cooper in connection with Joseph’s death. Cooper, who was 48 at the time, was charged with second-degree murder and placed in the Edgecombe County Detention Center under a $500,000 bond. Public booking information identifies Cooper as male and confirms that the arresting agency was the Rocky Mount Police Department.
Public booking records also show that Cooper had been taken into custody on November 27, 2023, the morning after the shooting, on a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a felon. That record alone did not establish that the firearm charge arose directly from Joseph’s killing, and authorities did not announce the second-degree murder charge until the following year. The later murder arrest represented the first publicly reported criminal charge specifically holding someone responsible for Joseph’s death.
No reliable publicly available report located for this synopsis announced that Cooper had gone to trial, entered a guilty plea or been convicted or sentenced in Joseph’s death. The most recent confirmed development is therefore the second-degree murder charge and the substantial bond imposed following Cooper’s arrest. A criminal charge is an accusation rather than proof of guilt, and the final resolution of the prosecution would depend on subsequent proceedings in the North Carolina court system.
