Opening up for the first time about the trauma of being shot two years ago, Grammy Award-winner Megan Thee Stallion described her fear not only of her assailant but of police officers.
“I was lying to protect all of us [from the police], and sometimes I wish I would have never said that,” said Megan, the Houston-born artist whose real name is Megan Pete. In an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings, Megan said an argument allegedly led to producer Tory Lanez shooting her in both of her feet.
The incident occurred in July 2020 following a party in Los Angeles.
“It was an argument because I was ready to go, and everybody else wasn’t ready to go, but that’s like normal friend stuff,” Megan, 27, told King. “We fuss about silly stuff all the time, but I never put my hands on anybody. I never raised my voice too loud. This was one of the times where it shouldn’t have got this crazy.”
She described how Lanez stood up over a window and began shooting at her. “So, I get out of the car, and it’s like, everything happens so fast,” she recalled. “All I hear is this man screaming, ‘Dance b—h.’ And he started shooting. I’m just like, ‘Oh my God.’ He shot a couple of times.”
Megan then revealed what Lanez said to her after the shooting. “He was like, ‘I’m so sorry, please don’t tell nobody. I’ll give y’all a million dollars if ya’ll don’t say anything,’” Megan recalled Lanez telling her.
“I’m like, ‘why are you offering money right now? Help me,’” she said.
Prosecutors eventually charged Lanez with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic weapon, personal use of a firearm, and carrying a loaded and unregistered gun in a vehicle. The 29-year-old hitmaker was released on $35,000 bail and has pleaded not guilty.
In early April, authorities detained Lanez for violating a judge’s order, preventing him from contacting Megan or publicly discussing the case. Fans of Megan and others have taken note of how the entertainer has stood strong in the aftermath of the shooting.
“Megan tearfully explains the devasting reality facing Black people,” tweeted Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights lawyer and president, director, and counsel emeritus at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
“The well-founded fear that cops will escalate a situation and kill makes many reluctant to tell the cops about perpetrators,” Ifill wrote.
She said Megan was “caught between a violent man and the potential of lethal violence from cops.”
Ifill continued: “It is unacceptable that this young woman faces the legitimate fear of escalated violence from those from whom she should expect protection. It also is a window into what happens every day in communities from Baltimore to Los Angeles where witnesses and victims fear cops.”
Journalist Ernest Owens denounced Lanez after Megan’s CBS interview. “This is why I can’t support those who still support Tory Lanez after 2020,” Owens tweeted. “Megan Thee Stallion looks devastated having to re-live this.”
Stacy M. Brown is an NNPA Newswire senior national correspondent