Megan Thee Stallion opens up about shooting: ‘My first reaction was to try to save us’
For the first time on TV, Megan Thee Stallion has opened up about being shot allegedly by fellow rapper Tory Lanez.
In an interview with Gayle King that aired Monday on CBS, the Grammy winner tearfully detailed the shooting that occurred in the summer of 2020 after a party hosted by reality TV star Kylie Jenner in the Hollywood Hills.
“I feel like I have to hold it in because I have to be strong for so many people,” Stallion told King, adding, “ I know this happened to me, and I would rather it play out in court and the facts come out ... than me having to plead my case.”
“I’m a victim,” she said. “I’m the victim. I’m not defending myself against anything. Something happened to me.”
Daystar Peterson, also known as Tory Lanez, is accused of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and other felonies.
In October 2020, Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was charged with assaulting Stallion with a semiautomatic firearm. At the time of the shooting, according to Stallion, the musicians were close friends who had bonded over the deaths of their mothers.
After hanging out at Jenner’s house, Stallion got into a car with Lanez, his driver and her friend from Houston, Kelsey Harris. While an argument ensued in the back seat, Stallion asked the driver to pull over so she could remove herself from the situation, she said.
When she got out of the car, Lanez allegedly fired a gun at her.
“Everything happens so fast,” Stallion told King. “All I hear is this man screaming ... ‘Dance, b—.’ He started shooting ... and I didn’t even want to move. I didn’t want to move too quick, because I’m like, ‘Oh my God, if I take the wrong step, I don’t know if he can shoot something that’s super important. I don’t know if he can shoot me and kill me.’
“I was really scared ’cause I had never been shot at before,” she added.
A representative for Lanez did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.
Judge David Herriford set the Canadian rapper’s bail at $350,000 and determined that Lanez’s social media posts directed at Megan Thee Stallion are a violation of the court’s pretrial protective orders.
In July 2020, Stallion said via Instagram that she was “grateful to be alive” after suffering gunshot wounds to her feet and undergoing surgery to remove the bullets. A report from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reviewed by the Los Angeles Times confirms that the “Savage” hitmaker underwent multiple procedures to remove major bullet fragments from both of her feet.
“I looked down at my feet because ... the adrenaline is pumping so hard, I’m not sure if he hit me,” Stallion recalled.
“I feel it but I don’t understand what’s happening. So I look down at my feet, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m really bleeding.’ So I drop down and I crawl in somebody’s driveway.”
After she was hit, Stallion said, Lanez immediately began to apologize and beg her not to tell anyone about the shooting. In the moment, he allegedly offered her $1 million to stay quiet, she said.
“I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Why are you offering me money right now?’” she said. “‘Help me! If you sorry, just help me!”
(Warning: The video below contains graphic images.)
In text messages obtained by CBS, Harris reached out to Stallion’s security guard that night and said, “Help. Tory shot Meg.”
When police arrived on the scene, Stallion said, she claimed she stepped on glass. Given the police’s history of violence against Black people, Stallion was afraid someone would end up dead if she revealed that a gun was involved, she told King.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, we are about to die,’” she continued.
“The George Floyd incident had just happened. The police are definitely very much shoot first, ask questions after. ... It’s a hot gun in the car. I’m bleeding. I’ve been shot. They about to kill somebody. Something bad is about to happen.”
Now, Stallion said, she sometimes regrets telling the police she stepped on glass, because skeptics have used that detail against her while accusing her of lying about the shooting.
“I was just trying to protect all of us because I didn’t want them to kill us,” she said. “Even though this person just did this to me, my first reaction still was to try to save us. I didn’t want to see anybody die, so I just said I stepped on glass.”
Rapper Tory Lanez has pleaded not guilty through his attorney to felony assault charges in the July shooting of hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion.
Though she initially hesitated to name her attacker, Stallion later publicly accused Lanez. He has denied firing at the “Good News” musician and insinuated that the two were romantically involved before the incident.
Speaking to King, Stallion denied having a sexual relationship with Lanez and accused him of spinning that narrative to “deflect from the fact that he committed a crime.”
Since authorities charged Lanez with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, personal use of a firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, there have been several developments.
A Los Angeles judge increased Lanez’s bail to $350,000 after ruling this month that his social media activity violated court orders barring him from contacting Stallion or commenting on the case. Last year, Lanez’s bail was raised to $250,000 from $190,000 after he defied a restraining order by performing immediately after Stallion at the Rolling Loud music festival in Miami.
Grammy-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion will make her debut as a television executive producer with a to-be-named series for Netflix.
Lanez’s trial is set for Sept. 14. After pleading not guilty to one count of firearm assault and one count of carrying a concealed firearm, he faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison.
In the wake of the shooting, Stallion said, her anxiety has worsened. When speaking to others, she often feels on the verge of tears.
“My relationship with people has gotten very cold because I’m not as trusting as I used to be,” she told King.
“I’ve got this wall, and I don’t want to make any friends. And I’m trying to be as nice as I can to everybody. ... I don’t want to have to explain to strangers why I’m crying. Half the time, I just want to pick up the phone and call my mom and be like, ‘What do I do?’ It’s too much.”
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