Prosecutors Allege Tory Lanez Shot Megan Thee Stallion Because She “Insulted His Skills As A Musical Artist”

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images, Cassidy Sparrow/Getty Images

Prosecutors Allege Tory Lanez Shot Megan Thee Stallion Because She “Insulted His Skills As A Musical Artist”

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images, Cassidy Sparrow/Getty Images

Two and a half years ago, Tory Lanez allegedly shot Megan Thee Stallion in the foot after a party in the Hollywood Hills. Right now, Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, is on trial in Los Angeles. Lanez has been charged with assault with a firearm and gun possession. Recently, the Los Angeles District Attorney added a third felony charge, discharging a firearm with gross negligence. The trail began yesterday, and prosecutors made their opening arguments, painting a picture of the scene that led to the shooting.

As Billboard reports, LA County District Defense Attorney Alexander Bott told the story of the incident in his opening arguments yesterday. In Bott’s account of the shooting, Megan, Lanez, and Megan’s former friend Kelsey Harris had all been at a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house. Megan and Lanez had previously “been intimate” with one another. While all three of them were sitting in an SUV driven by Lanez’s boddyguard Jauquan Smith, Megan and Lanez got into an argument after “Meg had insulted his skills as a musical artist.”

Bott says that Lanez “pulled [Megan] by the hair” and “either punched her or slapped her” before shooting her in the foot. Bott also showed screenshots of texts that Jauquan Smith sent to Justin Edison, Megan Thee Stallion’s bodyguard, immediately after the shooting: “Help. Tory shot meg. 911.” Police then searched the car and found a gun hidden under the floorboard near where Lanez had been sitting. Megan Thee Stallion went straight into surgery, and doctors pulled three bullets out of her feet. Tory Lanez, Kelsey Harris, and two other people on the scene all tested positive for gunpowder residue.

Tory Lanez’s lawyer paints a different picture. Defense attorney George Mgdesyan says that the case was all about jealousy — specifically Megan Thee Stallion being jealous of Kelsey Harris, who had previously dated Tory Lanez and who had also been linked with DaBaby and Ben Simmons before each of them had been linked with Megan. Mgdesyan put forth the theory that Harris actually shot Megan, mentioning a witness who claimed that the two women had been in a fistfight and that one of them had been holding a gun. Mgdesyan explicitly said that Megan Thee Stallion is “lying about her story.”

If he’s convicted on all three of his charges, Tory Lanez faces a possible 22 years in prison. Megan Thee Stallion is expected to testify today.

more from News