Rapper Tory Lanez Found Guilty In Megan The Stallion Shooting
Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was found guilty by a Los Angeles jury of shooting fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion, 27, in both of her feet after an argument in the summer of 2020.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was convicted of three felony counts including assault with a semiautomatic handgun; carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. Lanez, who is a Canadian citizen, faces possible deportation and a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison.
After reports of the shooting spread, Megan The Stallion was the target of online ire as some people doubted she had ever been shot or wondered what she had done to provoke the action. The rapper Drake even seemed to tie the shooting into a song, with the lyrics “this bitch lie ‘bout gettin shots But she still a stallion.” Megan The Stallion responded with a tweet, saying “stop using my shooting for clout.” On July 17, she tweeted “Black women are so unprotected … it might be funny to y’all on the internet and just another messy topic for you to talk about but this is my real life and I’m real life hurt and traumatized.” Later that month, Megan The Stallion took to Instagram and shared that she had surgery after being shot in both feet. “I didn’t deserve to get shot,” she said.
But misinformation was intense surrounding the shooting, including infotainment bloggers who have dedicated their platforms to discrediting Megan The Stallion since the 2020 shooting. In an interview with NBC News, Catherine Knight Steele, a communications professor at the University of Maryland and the author of “Digital Black Feminism” said, “this points to the way that mis- and disinformation, and misogynoir, is trafficked because of its profitability, even in the Black community. It’s profitable for these sites to traffic in the most vile stereotypes about Black women.”
During the trial, the surgeon who operated on Megan Thee Stallion testified that there are still bullet fragments in her feet.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Megan The Stallion testified during the trial, detailing her struggles with depression and suicide. “I wish he would’ve just shot and killed me if I knew I was going to have to go go through this torture,” she said on the stand.
In a statement to the New York Times, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Megan Thee Stallion, said: “The jury got it right. I am thankful there is justice for Meg.”
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