Megan Thee Stallion tells court fellow rapper Tory Lanez told her to ‘dance’ as he shot at her feet
Grammy-winner Megan Thee Stallion has told a jury that fellow rapper Tory Lanez told her to “dance” before shooting at her feet five times following a party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills.
The hip hop star gave evidence in court during the second day of an assault trial in Los Angeles, saying she was wounded in the incident.
“I’m in shock. I’m scared,” the 27-year-old told jurors, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I hear the gun going off, and I can’t believe he’s shooting at me.”
Tory Lanez pictured outside court during the second day of his trial. Pic: AP/Damian Dovarganes
Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, said she saw blood on her feet after the alleged incident, which happened following a party at The Kardashians star Jenner‘s home in July 2020, Sky News’ US affiliate NBC reports from California’s City News Service.
She reportedly told the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Centre courthouse that after she was shot, Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, offered her $1m (about £808,000) to keep quiet.
Canadian rapper Lanez, 30, has pleaded not guilty to discharging a firearm with gross negligence, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle.
Megan wore a purple suit to give evidence in court.
“I just don’t feel good,” she said, at the beginning of questioning from deputy district attorney Kathy Ta. “I can’t believe I have to come in here and do this.”
Telling the court her memories of the night, she said she left Jenner’s party in a vehicle with Lanez, his bodyguard and her friend.
She and Lanez had become close, jurors heard, and had an occasionally sexual relationship.
Megan Thee Stallion performing at Glastonbury earlier in 2022
Megan’s friend, who had a “crush” on Lanez, tried to stir up trouble in the car, the court was told.
The rapper said the argument spiralled out of control and that she and Lanez started making digs about each other’s music and careers.
“I feel like that really rubbed him the wrong way,” she said. “He kept yelling and cursing.”
Megan said she was wearing a bikini, but got out of the vehicle and tried to walk away.
This is when Lanez leaned out and opened fire, she said, according to the reports, leaving the back of her feet wounded.
At one point, he yelled, “Dance, b*tch!”, she testified. “I looked down at my feet, and I see all the blood,” she said.
“Now everybody’s screaming. He looked shocked.”
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During the opening statements in the trial, Lanez’s attorney George Mgdesyan said Megan’s injury showed she could not have had a clear look at whoever shot the gun, and that he would present more evidence that countered her story during the trial.
If convicted on all counts, Lanez could be sentenced to more than 22 years in prison. He could also be deported to his native Canada.
Lanez’s career began in 2009, and he has had a successful run of mixtapes and major-label records since then, with his last two albums reaching the top 10 on the US Billboard charts.
Megan Thee Stallion was an up-and-coming star at the time of the alleged incident. In 2021, she won a Grammy for best new artist, and had number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 with her own song Savage featuring Beyonce, and as a guest on Cardi B‘s WAP, which featured Jenner in the video.
The trial continues.
Hollywood legend Gene Hackman and his wife have been found dead at their home in the New Mexico city of Santa Fe, police have said.
Hackman, 95, and is wife Betsy Arakawa, 64, were found dead with their dog, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said.
A statement to Sky News said: “We do not believe foul play was a factor in their deaths, however exact cause of death has not been determined at this time.”
Spokesperson Denise Avila said deputies responded to a request to do a welfare check on Wednesday around 1.45pm local time to find the couple and their dog dead at the scene.
Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa in 1991. Pic: Dave Lewis/Shutterstock
Hackman won an Oscar for a leading role in The French Connection, a 1971 action movie by William Friedkin, and another for best supporting actor in Clint Eastwood’s 1992 western, Unforgiven.
The French Connection earned him his first Oscar. Pic: 20th Century Fox/D’Antoni Productions/Schine-Moore Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
He was also known for playing Lex Luthor in the Superman films of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Roles in the Francis Ford Coppola mystery thriller The Conversation and in the historical drama Mississippi Burning, where he starred as an FBI agent alongside Willem Dafoe, helped cement his career as one of Hollywood’s greats.
Playing Lex Luthor alongside Christopher Reeve’s Superman. Pic: THA/Shutterstock
Long career
The former US Marine appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage, during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.
He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde.
He is also remembered for playing Captain Frank Ramsey alongside Denzel Washington in the 1995 thriller Crimson Tide.
He starred alongside Denzel Washington in Crimson Tide. Pic: Richard Foreman/THA/Shutterstock
In the early 2000s, he starred as an eccentric patriarch in The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson.
Hackman’s final film appearance was in 2004’s Welcome to Mooseport, after which he retired from acting and began co-writing adventure novels with friend and underwater archaeologist Daniel Lenihan.
“It’s very relaxing for me,” Hackman told Empire Magazine in 2020. “I don’t picture myself as a great writer, but I really enjoy the process.”
Playing the villain in Unforgiven. Pic: Everett/Shutterstock
‘He could play anyone’
Michael Caine revered Hackman as “one of the greatest actors” he had known while presenting him with the Cecil B DeMille Award in 2003.
Arakawa was a classical pianist. The couple married in 1991 and lived outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hackman had three children, Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017.
Star Trek star George Takei said: “We have lost one of the true giants of the screen,” in a tribute on X.
“Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it.
“He could be everyone and no one, a towering presence or an everyday Joe. That’s how powerful an actor he was,” Takei wrote on X.
“He will be missed, but his work will live on forever.”
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Gene Hackman won his second Oscar in 1993. Pic: AP
Irish comedian Dara O Briain called Hackman “the finest screen actor ever”.
“Not a single duff performance, in a long, long career,” he wrote in a post on X.
Hackman was versatile on screen, working with a face that he described to the New York Times in 1989 as that of “your everyday mine worker.”
StudioCanal, the UK arm of the leading European film studio, called Hackman’s death “a colossal loss for cinema” in a tribute posted on X.
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