Megan Thee Stallion testified today (December 13) in the trial of Tory Lanez, whom she accuses of shooting her in July 2020. Lanez, whose given name is Daystar Peterson, stands accused of three felonies and faces more than 20 years in prison if found guilty. While recounting the incident at the center of the trial—an argument in an SUV following a party at Kendall Jenner’s house—Megan recalled how Petersen offered her and Kelsey Harris, her longtime friend and former assistant, $1 million to keep quiet about the shooting.
“I just don’t feel good,” the Los Angeles Times reports the Houston rapper—born Megan Pete—said. “I can’t believe I have to come in here and do this.” Pete would go on to describe the argument in the SUV, which got tense once Peterson implored Pete to “stop lying” to Harris.
According to Rolling Stone, Pete said she did not want Harris—or anyone—to know about her casual and non-exclusive sexual relationship with Peterson. “Because I knew Kelsey had a crush on Tory, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and I didn’t want her to know that I had dealt with him in any kind of way,” she said. “So he knew I didn’t want her to know that. I didn’t want anybody to know.”
Pete reportedly said that she left the car after Peterson called both women “bitches and hoes,” but returned after realizing she was dressed for the pool and not the street. “I realize, oh my god, I’m literally at the peak of being so famous right now, and I’m in a thong, and I look crazy, and if anybody sees me walking down the street like this, it’s going to be bad for me,” said Pete. The argument continued in the car, where Pete and Peterson disparaged each other’s music careers. Pete said that after she exited the vehicle again near their home, Peterson yelled at her as he fired at her feet.
“I start walking away from the car, and I can hear Tory say, ‘Dance, bitch!’ I don’t have to turn all the way around. I didn’t have to use my feet to turn around; I literally turned like this, and I could see him with the gun,” said Pete. Rolling Stone reports that as she testified, Pete demonstrated to the jury how she turned her head without turning her entire body—Peterson’s lawyer George Mgdesyan objected, but overruled. The detail looms large in the trial, as Peterson, who publicly questioned such in his song “Sorry But I Had To…” (“If you got shot from behind, how can you identify me?”), is expected to have his attorneys argue that her eyewitness testimony is unreliable.
Pete testified that after the shooting, Peterson was apologetic, saying, “Please don’t say anything. I’ll give y’all a million dollars. I can’t go to jail. I already got caught with a gun before.” She then admitted to lying to police about why she was wounded, claiming she had stepped on glass. “This was the height of police brutality and George Floyd, and if I said this man just shot me, I didn’t know if they might shoot first and ask questions later,” said Pete.
Lanez faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all three felony counts. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Yesterday, during his opening arguments, Los Angeles County’s deputy district attorney, Alexander Bott, told jurors that Megan Thee Stallion was shot by Tory Lanez, according to Rolling Stone. Bott alluded to witnesses on the scene who will reportedly corroborate her version of events in court, including Kelsey Harris. As previously reported, Harris is said to have sent text messages to Pete’s bodyguard reading: “Help,” “Tory Shot Meg,” and “911.” Those messages were reportedly shown in court.
Bott also played a portion of a voicemail in which Tory Lanez apologized and acknowledged he was drunk at the time of the shooting, but did not admit to discharging the gun, the Los Angeles Times reports. The court was also shown a text from Lanez to Pete, reading, in part, “Shit should have never happened and I can’t change what I did,” according to The LA Times.
Tory Lanez’s defense attorney, George G. Mgdesyan, reportedly said Megan Thee Stallion and Kelsey Harris both had sexual relationships with Lanez, and that this has influenced their tellings of the incident. Mgdesyan also said Pete and Lanez started fighting during the party at Kylie Jenner’s house and that Corey Gamble, who apparently witnessed some of the argument, will take the stand.
Lanez was arrested in July 2020 on a concealed firearm charge. Two charges came later: assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. As trial proceedings began earlier this month, prosecutors added another felony charge for discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner.
Megan Thee Stallion named Tory Lanez as her alleged assailant one month after she claimed she had been shot in the foot. She further detailed the experience and her injuries in an interview this year with Gayle King.