The first reports broke on August 20th, 2020. It was more than a month after the post-pool party shooting when Megan Thee Stallion named Tory Lanez the gunman behind her foot wound. For some time, there had been confusion surrounding just what happened. Indeed, it wasn’t even clear who had been involved in the July 12th incident. There were early reports that Meg had stepped on broken glass. Some claimed not to hear gunshots at all. For more than a month, rumors swirled.
Finally, Meg came forward with a name, and for the first time, the public could put a face to the shooting: Tory Lanez.
The Night of July 12, 2020
According to Meg, real name Megan Pete, an argument broke out in Lanez’s car. Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, was accompanied by his security guard, an unnamed mutual friend, and Meg. At some point during the argument, Meg exited the car, walking off. She claims Lanez then shot at her through the back window of the vehicle. What prompted this? “No reason,” Meg claims.
TMZ report says that Megan at first allegedly told responding police that her wound came from stepping on broken glass. Her story, however, changed quickly, and she was soon getting surgery for the gunshot injury at a local hospital. During this entire time, she would not say who shot her.
Lanez was arrested that night by police responding to the scene. He was brought in on charges of carrying a concealed weapon in his vehicle. No charges were brought against him for Meg’s injuries. Soon enough, he was out on $35,000 bail.
Eventually, in an Instagram Live video, Meg name-dropped Tory as the shooter. She also claimed that Tory’s PR team actively discredited her and spread false information about the incident.
Megan, in the aftermath
Once name-dropping Lanez, Meg proceeded to clarify her story. Specifically, she came forward with her reasoning for staying silent so long on the Instagram Live video:
“When the police came- I’m scared. All this sh*t going down with the police…I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want the police to shoot me because there’s a n—- with a gun in the car with me.”
In addition, she was worried that the LAPD would be “aggressive” in handling her case. She later acknowledged that she should have been upfront following the incident.
On July 23rd, Megan tweeted this out amid allegations behind the identity of the July 12th shooter:
Black women are so unprotected & we hold so many things in to protect the feelings of others w/o considering our own. 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.
The following October, Megan gave a powerful performance on SNL, calling for increased protections for Black women. She called out Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s handling of the Breonna Taylor case. Meg also included an interlude of a Malcon X speech and sounds of shots being fired.
In November of 2020, Megan claimed in her GQ “Rapper of the Year” profile that Lanez had tried to bribe her. Immediately following the shooting, Lanez allegedly offered Megan and the unnamed passenger hush money as police arrived. Lanez’s lawyer denied this claim in a follow-up statement for GQ.
The increasingly poor decisions of Tory Lanez
Following his release on bail, the problems for Lanez began to stack up. On July 24th, 2020, the LA District Attorney’s Office asked law enforcement to investigate Lanez’s actions on the 12th and just how legal his firearms were.
After Megan’s live stream, Jim Lewis, a lawyer for Lanez, refused to comment on the situation. Lanez himself stayed quiet. Then on September 24th, he broke his silence with a tweet:
To my fans … I’m sorry for my silence …. but respectfully .. I got time today …… 9 PM PST .
A few hours later, Lanez dropped a surprise album, “DAYSTAR.” To say that the album was controversial and inflammatory is an understatement. In short, he both mocked and questioned Megan’s injuries, denied involvement, and made all sorts of claims. They ranged from playing the victim to an accusation of Megan’s people paying him to keep quiet.
On September 25th, the same day as “DAYSTAR” came out, Megan’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, issued a statement. In it, Spiro details a smear campaign launched against Megan to discredit her and hurt her career. “We have been made aware of manipulated text messages and invented email accounts,” Spiro said. “[Those] have been disseminated to the media in a calculated attempt to peddle a false narrative.”
Spiro blamed it on the representatives of Lanez. While Lanez’s reps denied any involvement, Lanez claimed that the smear campaign was actually targetting him.
Then came the charges. On October 8th, 2020, the LA District Attorney’s Office announced felony assault and gun charges against Tory Lanez. His bail was set at $190,000. If convicted, he could face nearly 23 years in state prison.
Post “Rolling Loud” Developments
While performing with DaBaby at the Rolling Loud festival last August, Lanez made yet another wrong decision. In performing where he did, he came within 100 yards of Megan. This violates a protective order filed back in January 2021. There were plenty of questions surrounding this episode, notably whether or not Megan or Lanez knew of each other being present. Lanez’s attorney stated that he did not mean to violate the protective order. Yet, it is alleged that event organizers knew of the potential issue beforehand. It is unclear whether or not they informed the artists.
On August 13, prosecutors asked the presiding judge to either revoke or increase Lanez’s bail. On the 23rd, the judge increased the bail from $190,000 to $250,000. The judge also modified the protective order to include events where Megan will be performing. Lanez will also be “remanded into custody” if he again violates the order.
