A Los Angeles jury of seven women and five men on Friday found rapper Tory Lanez (born Daystar Peterson) guilty of all three charges: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Lanez had been accused of shooting Megan thee Stallion (whose legal name is Megan Pete) in July of 2020. Lanez pleaded not guilty to the charges. The Grammy-winning rapper testified she had gotten out of a car following an argument with Lanez and began walking away; however, when she turned her head toward him, she saw him holding a gun. She alleged he said “Dance b****” before he opted to discharge his gun. Pete sustained injuries to both of her feet.
"I froze... I felt shocked," she testified in mid-December. "I wasn't really sure if this was happening... I looked at the ground and saw the blood… everyone was shocked."
Recordings of Lanez apologizing to Pete were played during the trial. Pete also alleged Lanez offered her $1 million to stay silent about the incident. Lanez' defense attorney George Mgdesyan tried to argue that Lanez was not the person who shot Pete, and claimed Pete was a “liar.”
The courtroom became emotional after the verdict was announced. Lanez, who is 30, showed no “visible reaction” but his father, Sonstar Peterson, jumped up and shouted: “This wicked system stands judged before God almighty!” As deputies approached him, he then pointed at prosecutors and called them “evil, wicked people.”
"I'm having a really difficult time sitting up here telling my story and having to sit across [from] people who have made up lies about me and having to [sit] across from Tory," Pete said in her testimony on the second day of the trial.
"I try to be strong. I don't like to look weak. I don't want to give them the power that they've taken from me for the last three years."
The trial brought up topics of gender equality---specifically women’s treatment in the hip-hop community---the sexism and racism Black women face in their own communities as well as society as a whole, and has spotlighted the Protect Black Women movement.
“I didn’t want to talk to the officers because I didn’t want to be a snitch,” the rapper explained when asked why she had told police her injuries were from stepping on glass the night she was shot. “Snitching is frowned upon in the hip-hop community,” which she said was a boys’ club.
George Gascón, the Los Angeles district attorney, highlighted Pete’s “bravery” in a statement.
“You showed incredible courage and vulnerability with your testimony despite repeated and grotesque attacks that you did not deserve,” the DA said. “Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault and sexual violence because they are too often not believed.”
While on the stand Pete said the shooting had caused her great loss, including her confidence, friends and herself, adding: “I wish he had just shot and killed me.”
In an op-ed which Pete wrote for the New York Times titled "Why I Speak Up for Black Women", Pete explained she was not in a relationship with Lanez, and that the shooting happened because "too many men treat all women as objects, which helps them to justify inflicting abuse against us when we choose to exercise our own free will."