Canadian rapper Tory Lanez gets 10 years for shooting US rapper Megan Thee Stallion at pool party
Wednesday, 9 August 2023 (11:37 IST)
Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for shooting US rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
He shot Megan Thee Stallion at pool party in the Hollywood Hills in July 2020.
In December last year, a jury found Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, guilty of carrying a loaded and unregistered firearm in a vehicle, assault with a semiautomatic handgun and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, previously said she needed surgery and spent four days in hospital undergoing physical therapy before she could walk again.
In a statement read in court Monday, the three-time Grammy winner said she had not experienced "a single day of peace" since she was shot just over three years ago.
"He not only shot me, he made a mockery of my trauma," she said.
Sentence rocks hip-hop community
Judge David Herriford said he received more than 70 letters on Lanez's behalf, including from his celebrity friends like Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, who he said had requested a sentence that was "transformational, not life-destroying."
Lanez asked the judge for leniency, saying he takes responsibility for what he did.
"If I could turn back the series of events that night and change them," I would, Lanez said on Tuesday. "The victim was my friend. The victim is someone I still care for to this day."
Herriford said it was "difficult to reconcile" the kind person and good father many people described Lanez as being during the hearing with the person who fired the gun at Megan Thee Stallion.
The sentence brings to an end a dramatic dispute in the hip-hop community that cast a spotlight on the reluctance of Black victims to speak to police, gender politics in hip-hop, online toxicity, and calls to better protect Black women.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said, after December's verdict, that women, especially Black women, are often afraid to report crimes such as assault and sexual violence because they are too often not believed.
"I hope that Ms Pete's bravery gives hope to those who feel helpless," he said at a news conference after the sentencing on Tuesday.
