Tory Lanez is going to need to get his story straight soon. During a preliminary hearing earlier today in his felony assault case involving Megan Thee Stallion, a Los Angeles Police Department detective testified that Lanez shouted “dance, bitch, dance” while allegedly firing gunshots at Megan’s feet, injuring her in the process.
LAPD detective Ryan Stogner confirmed some of the rumors about what transpired between Megan and Lanez on the infamous night in the Hollywood Hills. Stogner’s account of Lanez saying “dance, bitch, dance” while shooting at her coincides with a Complex News source who described the situation similarly in September. According to Stogner’s testimony, Megan told him that after Tory fired shots at the Grammy Award-winning rapper in the Hollywood Hills around 4:30 A.M. on July 12, 2020, he begged Megan to not tell anyone about the incident and allegedly offered her money to keep quiet. This is consistent with the account Megan gave in her November GQ profile, in which she recollects thinking, “I can't believe you even think I want to make some money. Like, you just shot me.”
During the hearing, Lanez’s defense attorney, Shawn Holley, questioned Stonger in an attempt to introduce new information into the case and likely shift the public narrative around the embattled singer-rapper. After Detective Stogner testified Megan told him Lanez was intoxicated during the ordeal, Holley got the detective to admit he never asked Megan how much alcohol she consumed that day and asked the officer if he was “aware alcohol can impair a person’s perception and their ability to recall?” Lanez attended the hearing before leaving without speaking to reporters.
Since the alleged shooting, Lanez has released five projects, publicly celebrated selling one million copies of an NFT-exclusive album, and performed as a guest in DaBaby’s set at the same Rolling Loud Miami concert where Megan performed shortly before. Why else would an accused abuser violate a restraining order placed on him by his alleged victim unless he’s operating under a completely different impression of how the fateful July 2020 night went than Megan? Two months after the incident, Lanez denied shooting her by questioning how she was shot in the foot if the bullet “don’t hit no bones or tendons” on his surprise Daystar album. A month later during an ill-advised Instagram Live, he essentially called Megan a liar, further demonstrating he lives in a reality of his own making to live through the mess he knows he created.
“She knows what happened, I know what happened, and we know that what you’re saying and what the alleged things and the alleged accusations of my name are not true,” Lanez said in the October 2020 Instagram Live.
Unfortunately for Lanez, facts and eyewitness testimony have eroded the insulated bubble of misinformation he’s been operating under to have some semblance of a career since the shooting. While he’s steadfastly denied shooting Megan, LAPD Officer Sandra Cabral testified at today’s hearing that a gun was found under Lanez’s seat in the car on the night in question, and it was “warm to the touch,” implying the firearm had just been used. While he can’t fathom how someone can get shot without hitting any bones or tendons, Megan already showed us actual photos of her foot injuries, and they don’t look like the results of stepping on glass.
Lanez’s bubble will begin to burst early next year after Judge Keith Borjon found probable cause to begin the trial. If convicted, Lanez faces a possible sentence of 22 years and eight months in state prison. But, with his brazen public rebuke of facts and distortions of the truth, the court of public opinion may never forgive him.
