Overview

The Megan Thee Stallion Shooting occurred on July 12th, 2020, in Los Angeles, California, when police responded to reports of an argument in an SUV where gunshots were reported. Police arrested Canadian rapper Tory Lanez on gun charges. Megan Thee Stallion reported that she suffered from gunshot wounds during an incident and police drove her to the hospital, refuting rumors that she had been arrested. On August 2023 Lanez was sentenced to 10 years for shooting Stallion.

Background

On July 12th, 2020, at approximately 4:30 am, the Los Angeles police responded to a call about an argument in an SUV where shots were fired. Megan Thee Stallion, Lanez and an unidentified woman were in the car. Police arrested Lanez after discovering a gun in the car, charging him with carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, a felony offense.^[1]

Developments

On July 15th, TMZ^[2] published footage of the incident, which reportedly shows Megan Thee Stallion limping backward toward police and, according to TMZ, "with each step she takes, she leaves a trail of blood" (shown below). The outlet reports that the three people involved in the incident were wearing swimwear, having left Kylie Jenner's pool party earlier in the evening.

The outlet published more footage of the arrest that day, showing Lanez's arrested, and Megan Thee Stallion and the other woman speaking with police (shown below).

Megan Thee Stallion's Statement

On July 15th, Megan Thee Stallion published a statement on Instagram ^[3] about the incident. She wrote, "On Sunday morning, I suffered gunshot wounds, as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me. I was never arrested, the police officers drove me to the hospital where I underwent surgery to remove the bullets." The post received more than 1.5 million likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Tory Lanez Sentence

On August 8th, 2023, rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced^[9] to 10 years in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion. The Canadian rapper was found guilty on three gun-related charges in December 2022 and has been held in jail since.
Entertainment Tonight^[10] uploaded a video explaining how the sentence was defined in court. The video (shown below) amassed over 24,000 views and 373 likes in a day.

The sentence became a trending topic on social media, as users posted ironic memes mocking the Canadian rapper. For example, on August 8th, Twitter^[11] user @JefferyxBball uploaded a video of a kid being carried by his parent to represent how Tory Lanez was taken to jail. The post (shown below) received more than 4.5 million views and 79,200 likes in a day.

this how they taking Tory Lanez to jail pic.twitter.com/9hMBhFHMtl

— Jeffery Perkins (@JefferyxBball) August 8, 2023

Online Reaction

On July 15th, 2020, Redditor^[4] Melanismdotcom shared the Megan Thee Stallion Instagram post in the /r/hiphopheads subreddit. The post received more than 5,400 points (99% upvoted) and 725 comments in less than 24 hours. That day, Redditor^[5] impeccabletim also shared the news in the /r/popheads subreddit, where it received more than 1,600 points (96% upvoted) and 170 comments in less than 24 hours.

On Twitter, some speculated that Kylie Jenner was somehow involved in the shooting without proof. Twitter^[6] user @wrydumbjunior tweeted, "kylie jenner was hanging out w megan thee stallion and tory lanez when megan gets shot MULTIPLE TIMES and tory gets arrested… and kylies just sitting somewhere posting pics like these??? PICK YOUR FRIENDS WISELY PEOPLE." The post received more than 53,000 likes and 9,500 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). Twitter^[7] user @akvstheworld tweeted, "so megan thee stallion got shot, tory got his ass arrested and kylie just free and in the wild?? sum not right." The tweet received more than 6,600 likes and 850 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below, center).

Others commented on the shooting. Twitter^[8] user @Mufaa6 tweeted, "Who just wakes up and says let me go shoot at Megan thee stallion." The tweet 5,500 likes and 885 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Megan Thee Stallion's Torey Lanez Accusation

On July 20th, 2020, Megan Thee Stallion published an Instagram Live video in which she accused Lanez of being the shooter. "Yes … Tory shot me. You shot me and you got your publicist and your people going to these blogs lying," said the rapper. "Stop lying. Why lie? I don’t understand." In the video, she says that "didn’t tell the police nothing because I didn’t want us to get in no more trouble."

Search Interest

External References