More than seven months after rapper Tory Lanez was convicted of three felony counts for shooting Megan Thee Stallion (née Megan Pete) in 2020, he has officially been sentenced to 10 years in prison. It’s been a long and winding road to this outcome for Megan, who described the trauma of the incident in a 2020 GQ interview: “I have to be tough through all this? All the time?” she remarked. “It was like, ‘What do I do?’ ‘What do I say?’ Like, ‘Is anybody going to believe what I’m saying?’”
As some measure of justice is finally meted out, read a full timeline of the shooting—and everything that came after—below.
When did the shooting occur?
On July 12, 2020, Megan and Lanez both attended a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home. At around 4: 30 the following morning, police responded to a call reporting gunshots and arrested Lanez for carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle. Megan sustained a foot injury that was initially reported as being caused by broken glass, but later that month Page Six reported that Lanez had actually shot Megan. Megan confirmed this reporting on her own Instagram in August 2020, saying: “I didn’t get cut by no glass…. All this shit going on with the police…. I didn’t want to die.”
What happened next?
Lanez was charged with felony assault in October of 2020, shortly after releasing new music in which he implied Megan was lying about her injuries (sample lyric: “How the fuck you get shot in your foot, don’t hit no bones or tendons?”). Soon after a judge ordered Lanez to stay at least 100 yards away from Megan and not engage in any form of contact with her. The charges against Lanez were upheld in 2021, with the rapper pleading not guilty at his second arraignment and a judge raising his bail to $350,000 in spring of 2022. That December, Lanez was convicted of assault with a semiautomatic firearm; having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
What are the details of Lanez’s sentencing?
Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison without the possibility of parole after originally facing up to 22 years. Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascón said in a statement on Tuesday that Lanez had “engaged in a pattern of conduct that was intended to intimidate Ms. Pete and silence her truths from being heard,” adding: “Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault because they are too often not believed. I commend Megan Pete for her incredible bravery and vulnerability as she underwent months of probing investigation and court appearances where she had to relive her trauma, and the public scrutiny that followed.”
Has Megan Thee Stallion commented publicly on Lanez’s sentencing?
Megan did not attend Lanez’s sentencing, but a statement from her was read aloud in court by a district attorney. It said, in part: “He not only shot me, he made a mockery of my trauma. He tried to position himself as a victim and set out to destroy my character and my soul. He lied to anyone that would listen and paid bloggers to disseminate false information about the case on social media. He released music videos and songs to damage my character and continue his crusade…. This is a statement for all survivors that their lives matter and there is zero tolerance for the torture that accompanies violence.”
