Rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot in 2020.
Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was convicted in December of three felonies: assault with a semi-automatic firearm, having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
During the trial, the jury learned that Lanez had fired a gun at Megan Thee Stallion’s feet and shouted at her to dance as she walked away from a car in which they had been traveling on July 12, 2020. The pair had left a party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home. Megan Thee Stallion was struck in the foot and required surgery.
Prosecutor Edward Welbourn said that Megan Thee Stallion had been “lucky” on the night of the shooting, as she was only struck in the foot. However, he argued that Lanez’s actions were still heinous and constituted a “multi-year campaign of harassment.”
“Megan got lucky that night, but her luck should not negate (Lanez’s) culpability,” Welbourn said. “Her luck is not his luck.”
“You know what Megan didn’t do? She didn’t shoot anybody. She didn’t embark on a campaign of disinformation.”
Prosecutor Edward Welbourn said that Lanez’s actions were “as serious as it gets” and that if Megan Thee Stallion had died, he would be facing a murder charge. He also noted that Megan Thee Stallion had “not experienced a single day of peace” since the incident and that she was “too intimidated and too scared to be in the same courtroom as the defendant.”
Lanez did not appear to react as the sentence was read out, but he did address the court before it was handed down. He said that he still considered himself and Megan Thee Stallion “friends” and that he “did wrong that night and I take full responsibility and culpability for it.”
Lanez began his music career in 2009, releasing mixtapes that steadily grew in popularity. He eventually signed with a major record label and released two albums that reached the top 10 on Billboard’s charts.
Megan Thee Stallion, now 28, was already a rising star at the time of the shooting, and her prominence has only grown since. She won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021 and had two No. 1 singles: “Savage” featuring Beyoncé and “WAP” with Cardi B.
