In July 2020, Megan thee Stallion was involved in an intense police stop after attending a celebrity pool party in Los Angeles, leading to the shocking reveal that she had allegedly been shot in the feet by fellow musician Tory Lanez. The news devolved into a legal firestorm for both artists, with Megan asserting her innocence in the assault and Lanez launching an all-out smear campaign against the Grammy-winning rapper. Ahead of the criminal trial against Lanez that is set to begin in September, Megan is setting the record straight in a candid new interview with CBS Mornings’ Gayle King: she was in fact assaulted that night, and her life hasn’t been the same since.
When the news first broke about that fateful night in summer 2020, details about the police stop were unclear, but what was certain was that Megan was injured before the LAPD arrived on the scene. (TMZ acquired video footage that showed Megan walking away from a vehicle with her hands up, leaving bloody footprints with every step.) Initially, Megan told the police that she had stepped in glass, but a visit to the emergency room belied her statement; in reality, she had been shot in the foot when a verbal altercation in Lanez’ car had escalated. In the midst of the tense period that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis mere weeks earlier, the musician was afraid that painting the full picture at the scene of the shooting would result in a similar fate for her and her friends at the hands of the police, so she lied.
.@theestallion shares her story of the 2020 incident when she was shot in her feet, allegedly by Tory Lanez.
She says she initially told police she stepped on glass, because she feared for her life: “I was just trying to protect all of us because I didn’t want them to kill us.” pic.twitter.com/qd4MJ1yN2w
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 25, 2022
“I didn’t want them to shoot or kill any of us,” said Megan. “I was just trying to protect all of us. Even though this person just did this to me, my first reaction was still to just try and save us. I didn’t want to see anybody die.”
“Sometimes, I wish I’d never said [that I’d stepped on glass],” she told King. “I wish I would’ve told the truth, but if it saved all of us from dying, that’s probably what it was meant to be.”
In her conversation with King, Megan tearfully claimed that things had started to go south during what began as an argument between friends. She told CBS Mornings that tensions had risen when she’d wanted to leave Kylie Jenner’s pool party before the group was ready to go, and a disagreement between Lanez and someone else in the car quickly turned violent when Lanez allegedly began shooting. Megan, already outside of the vehicle, was hit by some of the bullets in the process.
“Everything happened so fast,” she recalled. “All I hear is this man screaming, ‘dance, bitch!’ I was just like, oh my God.I didn’t even want to move too quick because I was like, if I take the wrong step, I don’t know if he can shoot something that’s super important. I don’t know if he can shoot me and kill me.”
“I was really scared because I’d never been shot at before,” Megan continued. “I look down at my feet, and the adrenaline is pumping so hard that I’m not sure if he’d hit me. Like, I feel it, but I don’t understand what’s happening, so I drop down and crawl into someone’s driveway.”
When asked what Lanez did in the immediate aftermath of the gunshots, Megan shared that he’d apologised profusely — which she would later confirm via iMessage screenshots from the Canadian singer — and offered her and former friend Kelsey Harris one million dollars if they didn’t say anything about the shooting.
Despite Lanez’s alleged admission of guilt in the moment, the accused has since gone on to deny any responsibility in the shooting. Since the news broke, Lanez had alleged that the argument was sparked by romantic jealousy because he was sexually involved with both Megan and Harris — a claim that Megan denied in her CBS Mornings interview, calling them “really close friends” who had bonded over the shared loss of their mothers. In addition to dealing with the pain of being shot by someone in her close circle, Megan was also bombarded by a wide range of strong opinions about the altercation from the public, which varied from staunch support to straight-up denial of her injuries. From Lanez himself to bloggers with big followings to randoms on the internet, much of the discussion of the shooting was coloured with disbelief, with many people (disappointingly, a large number of them including Black women) expressing doubt in Megan’s statements, particularly in her decision to not initially tell the police that her foot injuries were the result of being shot. However, a medical report debunks all conspiracy theories about what may have gone down that night, confirming that bullets had gone through Megan’s feet, and that there are still fragments in her feet to this day.
CBS News also obtained text message evidence from former friend Harris, who was also in the car during the police stop, proving Megan’s description of events. “Help,” read Harris’ frantic texts to Megan’s security guard. “Tory shot Meg.”
Almost two years later, Megan hasn’t yet recovered from the shock and trauma of that night; being shot by someone she cared for has changed her life completely, and not for the better.
“I put the blame on myself because when my mom passed, I just felt like I was looking for some type of family environment, and I was letting so many people in,” Megan shared. “Now, I feel like my anxiety is worse. My relationships with people have gotten very cold because I’m not as trusting as I used to be. I got this wall up, and I don’t want to make any friends…I feel like every time I’m talking, I’m on the verge of tears, but I don’t want to explain to strangers why I’m crying.”
Back in October, Lanez was charged with one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and another of carrying an unregistered weapon — charges that could result in more than 20 years in prison should he be found guilty. While Lanez’s side continues to do everything in their power to disprove Megan’s case in the court of public opinion, Megan is looking forward to seeing how things play out before a judge and jury when the trial begins in September.
“I know that this happened, and I’d rather have this play out in court and have everything come out than me having to plead my case,” Megan concluded. “I’m the victim — I’m not defending myself for anything because something happened to me.”
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