Rapper Tory Lanez allegedly offered Megan Thee Stallion $1 million not to tell police he had shot her feet, she told a Los Angeles court on Tuesday.
Canadian Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, denies a number of charges relating to a July 2020 incident involving the American rap star, including assault with a semiautomatic firearm and using a firearm to inflict great bodily injury.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, said she had been in a car with Lanez, his bodyguard and her friend Kelsey Harris when an argument allegedly began after a Hollywood party.
She said she and Lanez had become close in the months before the incident, and occasionally had sex.
Harris, who only learned of the sexual relationship that night, allegedly had a "crush" on Lanez, the witness said, and an argument then began in the car, with Megan Thee Stallion demanding to be let out of the vehicle.
The Savage singer claimed she saw Lanez pointing a gun at her and opening fire.
"I'm in shock. I'm scared. I hear the gun going off and I can't believe he's shooting at me," she told the court.
"I did not know he had a gun that night."
In pain and bleeding from both feet, Megan Thee Stallion - who was wearing only a thong bikini at the time - eventually agreed to get back into the car.
"He started apologising," she said.
Lanez then allegedly said to her: "Don't say anything and I'll give you a million dollars."
Police stopped the car a short time later, and Megan Thee Stallion was transported to a hospital for treatment, telling police that she had cut her feet on broken glass.
The star said in mid-2020 - in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor - she did not want to talk to officers.
"At the time, we are at the height of police brutality... I felt like if I said this man has just shot me, they might shoot first and ask questions later," she said.
"I don't feel safe in the car. I don't feel safe with the police officers either."
She added that "in the black community, it's not really acceptable to be cooperating with police officers".
The trial in downtown Los Angeles earlier heard how a gun that was still warm to the touch was found on the floor near where Lanez had been sitting.
Lanez and Harris both subsequently tested positive for gunshot residue, a prosecutor said.
Megan Thee Stallion told the court she felt she had "been turned into some kind of villain" in the wake of the shooting, with the male-dominated rap world frequently seeming to be against her.
But she also acknowledged that she had lied on television when she denied having an intimate relationship with Lanez.
"I kept the sexual relationship out of it because it had nothing to do with the shooting," she said, but she agreed the alleged argument began after the relationship was mentioned in front of her then-best friend and personal assistant, Harris.
Lanez's attorney George Mgdesyan said on Monday that the jury needed to keep an open mind.
He insisted this was a "case about jealousy", and that he would prove the accusations against his client were lies.
Source: AFP
