Jurors in Los Angeles ruled Friday that rapper . “I felt if I said this man had shot me, they might shoot first and ask questions later. I don’t feel safe in the car. I don’t feel safe with the police.”
Megan had been the subject of vile comments from Lanez and others in the hip-hop community since the shooting, repeatedly called her a liar, even by Drake in his 2022 song “Circo Loco.”
“This bitch lie about getting shot but she still a stallion,” the song says—a microcosm of the misogyny Megan faced.
Coverage of the shooting by hip-hop blogs and online personalities also appeared to fixate on the personal life of Megan prior to the incident rather than the shooting itself.
Daily Loud, a popular online hip-hop platform, ran a viral video that accused Megan of having sex with his client, NBA player Ben Simmons, and rapper DaBaby—something completely irrelevant to Lanez’s trial.
Lanez’s lead defense attorney, George Mgdesyan, alleged that Megan fabricated the story to create a more sympathetic narrative. In reality, Mgdesyan insisted, Harris shot Megan in a bout of jealousy over her relationship with Lanez.
Mgdesyan claimed Lanez’s only involvement was him trying to stop the shooting.
“He was trying to protect her,” Mgdesyan said in closing arguments, according to BET.
Megan testified that she saw Lanez holding the gun just before he fired at her feet, and she said he later offered her $1 million in hush money to keep quiet about the incident.
A recorded interview was played for jurors that showed Harris identifying Lanez as the shooter.
But Mgdesyan alleged that Harris’ and Megan’s stories were aligned to pin the crime on Lanez. He argued that an insult over someone’s career would not cause someone to open fire, but jealousy between two women over a man would.
“What’s more likely to lead to a shooting?” he said.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott asked jurors to believe Megan’s anguish—evident in her emotional testimony—and her courage to fight through it.
“Megan does matter,” Bott said. “This case matters. Hold him accountable for shooting Megan over nothing more than a bruised ego.”
