A Los Angeles jury reached a verdict Friday in the trial of rapper Tory Lanez, who is accused of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the feet in 2020. Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, could face more than 22 years in prison and deportation back to Canada if convicted on all counts.
The Los Angeles County Superior Court said the verdict would be read shortly.
Lanez, 30, has been charged with discharging a firearm with gross negligence, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, testified that Lanez shot at her feet five times following a party in the Hollywood Hills on July 12, 2020. She also told the court that the shooting was preceded by an argument between Megan and Lanez that got heated, especially when they began attacking each other’s music careers.
“I feel like that really rubbed him the wrong way,” she said during her testimony, according to The Associated Press. “He kept yelling and cursing.”
She got out of the vehicle and tried to walk away when Lanez leaned out and opened fire, she said, leaving the back of her feet wounded. At one point, he yelled “Dance, b—-!” she testified. She eventually got back into the car, which was pulled over shortly after, CBS Los Angeles reported.
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She said that, despite the shooting, she agreed to get back in the vehicle with Lanez, his bodyguard and a third person because she was wearing a thong bikini and also felt like her manager would know what to do if she was able to get in touch with him, according to CBS Los Angeles.
She said she needed surgery to remove bullet fragments in her feet.
She also testified that Lanez had offered her $1 million to keep quiet about the incident since he was on probation, but a lawyer for Lanez stated that wasn’t true.
In an April interview with “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, Megan Thee Stallion described what led up to the shooting and how she reacted.
“The argument was with the two people in the back seat,” she said. “So I asked the driver to pull the car over. Like, I’m done with this. And I should have stayed out of the car. Like, I should have not got back in the car. And they was like, ‘Megan, just get back in the car. We’re almost there.’ And, like, just, ‘Get back in.’ So I get back in the car. It’s… getting worse.”
As the argument escalated, Megan Thee Stallion said she got out of the car, and that’s when, she told King, that Lanez fired a gun at her several times.
“So I get out of the car and it’s like everything happens so fast,” Megan Thee Stallion told King. “And all I hear is this man screaming. And he said, ‘Dance, b—-!’ And he started shooting. And I’m just like, ‘Oh, my God.’ Like, he shot a couple of times. And I was so scared.”
