A jury has reached a verdict Friday in the case against Tory Lanez in the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, a trial that has spawned hashtags on social media and diss tracks by some of the key figures in the case.
The Grammy-winning rapper accused Lanez of shooting her in the foot after the pair left a party at Kylie Jenner’s home in 2020. Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, pleaded not guilty to shooting her and dedicated an entire album to rebutting Megan Thee Stallion’s version of events.
He was originally charged with assault with a semi-automatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. Prosecutors added a third charge, discharging a firearm with gross negligence, earlier this month. Lanez faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison. He may also be deported to his home nation of Canada after serving his sentence.
The case originated in July 2020, when police stopped an SUV carrying the pair and two others in the Hollywood Hills. Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, testified that she initially told police that she cut her feet on glass when asked about why she was bleeding.
She was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai where doctors found bullet fragments in her foot, which required surgery to remove.
“I couldn’t walk for a while,” she testified. “I still have nerve damage. I can’t really feel the side of my left foot. The back of my feet are always sore, but I just push through it.”
She publicly stated on her Instagram weeks after the incident that she had been shot and eventually identified Lanez as the shooter. She later took aim at him in the song “Shots Fired.”
In her testimony, Megan Thee Stallion said Lanez offered her $1 million to keep quiet about the shooting.
In an interview with Gayle King in April, prior to the trial, Megan Thee Stallion explained that she initially lied to police because she feared getting into a more dangerous situation.
“You think I’m about to tell the police that we … us Black people got a gun in the car?” she asked. “You want me to tell the law that we got a gun in the car so they can shoot all of us up?”
Lanez declined to testify in his defense. His attorneys had called Sean Kelly, a witness who lived in the area, to tell the court that he had been woken up by two women fighting the night of shooting.
Kelly testified that he did see two women fighting, according to Variety, but then said he saw what appeared to be multiple gunshots come from a man who was “firing everywhere.”
Jurors also heard a taped interview with Megan Thee Stallion’s former friend, Kelsey Harris, from September, in which she gave a detailed account of the altercation between the two rappers.
Harris, who was also in the SUV, testified in court prior to the recording being played that she could not recall numerous details of the shooting but reportedly offered clear details of the night in her interview with prosecutors.
Harris said in the taped interview that she heard the pair argue about their “artistry” and careers prior to the shooting, according to Rolling Stone. She said that Lanez ordered the women exit the SUV and Megan Thee Stallion was walking away when the first shots were fired.
“He’s shooting over the top of the door,” Harris told prosecutors. “(He’s) leaning over the front passenger door, and he was shooting the gun.”
The trial has garnered significant attention online, with many Megan Thee Stallion fans criticizing public attention to the rapper’s sexual history. Fans have called out the slut-shaming or victim-blaming being used to distract from the violence she was subjected to. On the day she took the stand, thousands online used the hashtag #WeStandWithMegan to rally behind her virtually.
One user wrote in a tweet with more than 48,000 likes, “I personally don’t care if Megan slept with the entire city of Houston. WHY WAS SHE SHOT?”
Other celebrities have also spoken up about the case online, including Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” collaborator Cardi B. She called her a “superstar” in an Instagram Live.
“Why would somebody lie about getting shot?” Cardi said. “Why?”
Not all of the online chatter has been supportive of Megan Thee Stallion. Rapper 50 Cent posted a tweet earlier this month with a series of photos that appeared to show Megan Thee Stallion transforming into actor Jussie Smollett. He wrote that he was “confused” and didn’t “know what to think” before adding a link to his merchandise website.
Smollett was sentenced to jail and additional probation in March for falsely reporting to police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in 2019.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
