“Dance, bitch,” said Megan, the “crush” singer and former assistant, Kelsey (Peterson)
In her testimony during the trial, Megan said things were tense in the car between her, Lanez, and her former friend and assistant, Kelsey Harris, Billboard Magazine reports. The artist testified that Lanez wanted her to confess to Harris that the two of them had been intimate. Megan was not comfortable doing it because she knew Harris liked the Canadian singer and rapper.
Pete said this situation has made him more famous, and it has only been worse for him. I’ve been turned into a villain because of my injury, and he’s the victim. This has messed up my whole life … This whole situation in the industry is like a big boy’s club … I’m telling on one of y’all friends, now you’re all about to hate me.”
The Grammy winner recounted that she and Peterson had an intimate but not exclusive relationship in 2020, one that Harris did not know about at the time. She hid the relationship with Harris because he had a “crush” on Tory. (When asked specifically why she had not previously revealed the nature of her relationship with Peterson, Pete said she was embarrassed, “because it’s disgusting at this point. How could I share my body with someone who could do this to me?”)
The fight in the vehicle started when Peterson tried to pit the two women against each other, calling them ”bitches and hoes.”
Pete testified that, after exiting the vehicle for a second time on the drive home, Peterson shouted at her, “Dance, bitch,” then fired five shots at her from the passenger side, striking her in the feet. I thought I was shocked. I felt hurt. I wasn’t sure if this was really happening. I looked at my feet, I saw the blood and I fell to the ground,” the “WAP” star testified.
Pete shared that wariness was heightened due to the climate, George Floyd’s murder and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests, as well as the fact that she is Black.
Pete then spoke briefly about how “women aren’t believed when they speak out.” George Mgdesyan, Peterson’s attorney, objected on the grounds that the comment was tangential to the case.
Beyond fear of the police and questions surrounding survivor credibility, Pete also shared the concern that implicating Peterson could negatively impact her career in hip-hop.
While Pete was on the stand, Peterson, wearing a cream suit and white turtleneck, sat silently in the defense chair, taking notes sporadically and avoiding all eye contact with her.
Because social media has played a critical role in catalyzing public debate of this case, Pete’s revelation that Peterson watched her on Instagram is especially striking.
There are three felony charges against Peterson, and they include assault with a semi-automatic firearm, possession of a concealed, unregistered, and negligent discharge of a firearm. If convicted, Peterson faces up to 22 years in prison and/or possible deportation back to Canada.
Lanez had pleaded not guilty to assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, according to prosecutors.
DA Gascón: Megan Lanez’s deportation sentence after a jury trial revealed she had committed a crime against a black man
“I started walking away and I hear Tory yell, ‘Dance, b***h,” she tearfully testified, according to Billboard. I froze. I felt a sensation of shock. I felt like hurting myself. All of this blood came up when I looked down at my feet.
Megan “showed incredible courage and vulnerability” during her testimony “despite repeated and grotesque attacks,” LA County DA George Gascón said in a statement to CNN following the verdict.
“Women, especially Black women, are afraid to report crimes like assault and sexual violence because they are too often not believed. Gascn said that the trial for the second time this month highlighted the many ways in which society must do better for women.
Lanez was taken out of the courtroom by bailiffs in handcuffs after the verdict was read, according to CNN affiliate KCBS. There is a chance that he will be deported back to Canada after being sentenced to 22 years in prison.