Tory Lanez’s Trial Involving Meg Thee Stallion Shooting: What to Know

• Tory Lanez is accused of shooting Megan Thee Stallion and is set to go to trial on December 12.
• But a former LAPD detective involved in the case is facing domestic violence allegations.
• Lanez’s attorney argues that the detective is vital for his defense.

Days before Canadian rapper Tory Lanez’s trial on felony assault charges was set to begin, prosecutors revealed that a detective integral to the defense’s case has been “relieved of duty.”

Former Los Angeles Police Detective Ryan Stogner testified during pre-trial proceedings, accusing Lanez of shooting rapper Megan Thee Stallion in Hollywood in July 2020. But Stogner is no longer part of the LAPD, following domestic violence allegations against him, and may not be allowed to testify.

Lanez, whose birth name is Daystar Peterson, is facing up to 22 years in prison after pleading not guilty to two felony assault charges — assault with a semiautomatic firearm, personal use of a firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle — brought on by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office in October 2020.

On Tuesday, Lanez was also hit with a new charge of discharging a firearm with gross negligence relating to the conflict.

The trial for People v. Daystar Peterson aka Tory Lanez is scheduled to begin on December 12 in Los Angeles at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. It’s expected to last five to seven days.

 

 

Jason Koerner/Getty Images

 

‘Dance, bitch!’

On July 12, 2020, the night of a party at Kylie Jenner’s house in Los Angeles, police responded to a conflict in which individuals arguing led to gunfire.

When police arrived at the scene where Megan, Lanez, and Kelsey Nicole, a friend, were. Megan, whose birth name is Megan Pete, initially told the police her feet were bleeding because she’d stepped on glass, TMZ first reported.

But Lanez had been arrested two days later on charges of carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle.

Megan claimed on July 15, 2020, that she had encountered a “traumatic” incident in which someone shot her “with the intention to physically harm” her, Insider previously reported. But, at the time, she did not disclose the details of the incident.

In August 2020, Megan then claimed online that Lanez was the one that shot her in the foot. She’d also posted graphic now-deleted photos of her injuries after commenters accused her of lying.

In an August Instagram live video, she said, “I didn’t want the police to shoot me because there’s a gun in the car.”

“You think I’m about to tell the police that we, us black people, that we’ve got a gun in the car?” she added.

The altercation occurred amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter controversy, which Megan claims pushed her to want to withhold information from the police.

“[At this point] I’m really scared,” Megan said in a November 2020 GQ interview, “because this is like right in the middle of all the protesting.”

 

 

CBS via Getty Images

 

According to Stogner’s pre-trial testimony in December 2021, Lanez shouted “Dance, bitch!” while firing the gun at Megan.

“[Megan] observed Mr. Peterson holding a firearm and then she observed him start to shoot,” Stogner testified, according to Rolling Stone. “Megan immediately felt pain in her feet, observed blood, fell to the ground and then crawled to an adjacent driveway of a residence … She described her injuries as bleeding profusely.”

An attorney for Lanez, Shawn Holley, accused Megan’s perception of being impaired by drinking at the party and says one of the other individuals in the car could have shot her, according to Variety.

“You never asked Megan how much she had to drink that day, did you?” Holley asked Stogner at the December 2021 hearing.

Jury selection came to a close on Thursday after three and a half days of the process. On Wednesday, the court was made aware that Stogner was no longer a part of the LAPD and had faced domestic violence allegations that he was not prosecuted for.

George Mgdesyan, Lanez’s attorney, argued that Stogner is “critical” to the case, according to a Wednesday pool report from jury selection.

“Detective Stogner is one, if not the most important witness for the defense,” Mgdesyan said, according to the report. “This is a detective who I will argue has botched the investigation … He only chose to do certain things that were incriminating to my client.”

Prosecutors said that they did not intend on calling on Stogner to testify, but Mgdesyan still intends to call him as a witness, according to the Wednesday pool report.

It’s unclear if Stogner will be able to testify, and it’s possible the court may carry out a hearing without the jury to establish whether his being relieved of duty will impact his testimony, per a Thursday pool report.

 

 

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/ Brian Stukes/Getty Images

 

A cultural divide

Over the past two years, Megan has become an advocate highlighting injustices and hardships Black women are forced to endure, while Lanez has become a likely voice against “cancel culture” pushing for the protection of Black men.

The conflict has become ingrained in pop culture commentary — most recently in Drake and 21 Savage’s song “Circo Loco” where Drake accused her of lying — emphasizing a divide in the Black community.

On her November 2020 album, “Good News,” Megan took aim at Lanez in her introductory song, “Shots Fired.” Over a sample from The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya?,” she rapped about people “lyin’ ’bout shootin’ a real bitch / Just to save face” with rappers “you chill with.”

She went on to say she kept Lanez from being arrested the night they were in a confrontation with the police and then accused him of offering her hush money. (Lanez attorney Shawn Holley has previously denied to Insider that he offered her money.)

On September 25, 2020, Lanez dropped a surprise album, “DAYSTAR” where he dissed Megan and claimed on “Money Over Fallouts,” that “Megan people tryna frame me for a shootin’.”

“Gotta see a couple questions: how the fuck you get shot in your foot, don’t hit no bones or tendons?” He added. “How the fuck your team is tryna to pay me in some whole millions?”

The day before his album drop, Lanez tweeted, “To my fans … I’m sorry for my silence …. but respectfully .. I got time today.”

“There is a time to stay silent,” he added. “And a time to speak ….. I said all I could say on this.”

The LAPD, district attorney’s office, Lanez’s attorney, and Megan’s attorney did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.