A Los Angeles police detective who investigated the alleged shooting of Megan Thee Stallion has been accused of domestic violence and “relieved of his duties” by the agency, according to the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office and court testimony.
The revelation came during jury selection for the trial of Tory Lanez, a Canadian-born rapper accused of shooting the fellow rapper during an argument in the Hollywood Hills two years ago.
Ryan Stogner was set to be a “one of, if not the most important” witness for the defense, Lanez’s attorney George Mgdesyan said during an on-the-record conversation between legal teams and the judge before potential jurors were brought into the courtroom. The detective interviewed Megan Thee Stallion and in December 2021 Stogner testified that Lanez said, “Dance, bitch,” while firing his gun toward her feet.
The district attorney’s office declined to file misdemeanor spousal battery charges against Stogner last month, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office told the Guardian. It is unclear if the domestic violence accusation against Stogner is the reason LAPD placed him on administrative leave.
LAPD nor Stogner’s legal representatives have responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment on his employment.
Stogner is one of the latest Los Angeles police officers to be accused of violence against a woman. In 2019, Ricardo Hernandez was charged with domestic violence for beating his girlfriend, KTLA reported. And in 2021, Danny Reedy, a former Los Angeles police officer pleaded no contest to one count of misdemeanor injury after he was accused of sexually assaulting a female detective, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Domestic abuse and violence against women have been a major recurring theme in the public discourse about the 2020 incident between the musicians. Lanez has claimed that he was in a relationship with both Megan Thee Stallion and one of her friends and that is what led to the alleged shooting. The Texas rapper has denied ever having an intimate relationship with Lanez.
However, her claims of not being believed by her industry peers and ridiculed by online commenters who have claimed that she is lying about the alleged shooting speak to broader issues of gender-based violence.
“I’ve realized that violence against women is not always connected to being in a relationship,” Megan Thee Stallion wrote in a 2020 New York Times opinion piece. “Instead, it happens because too many men treat all women as objects, which helps them to justify inflicting abuse against us when we choose to exercise our own free will.”
Lanez is currently facing three felony charges – assault with a semi-automatic firearm, possession of a concealed firearm and the newly added count of discharging a firearm with gross negligence. If convicted, he faces more than 22 years in prison. Opening statements for his trial are scheduled to start on Monday.
• This article’s headline was amended on 9 December 2022. An earlier version misspelled the artist’s name as “Meghan” Thee Stallion.
