What began as a Hollywood Hills party in July 2020 turned into one of the most polarizing legal battles in recent music history. Megan Thee Stallion accused fellow artist Tory Lanez of shooting her in the foot after an argument that broke out in an SUV between her, Lanez, and her then-friend Kelsey Harris. As the situation escalated, the incident quickly became a lightning rod for conversations about misogyny, the treatment of Black women in the industry, and accountability among male artists.

More than two years later, after multiple hearings and public debates, a Los Angeles jury found Lanez guilty of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded unregistered firearm, and discharging it with gross negligence. On August 9, 2023, he was sentenced to ten years in state prison. He has been serving time at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi ever since. Throughout the trial, Megan testified in emotional detail about the trauma she experienced, not just from the shooting, but from the waves of online hate that followed.

Despite the conviction, Lanez and his legal team have refused to back down: On May 14, 2025, Lanez’s attorneys held a press conference suggesting that they had new evidence that could change the outcome of the case. They claimed a bodyguard named Bradley James overheard Kelsey Harris admitting to being the shooter and said that a home surveillance video backed up this theory. They also returned to an earlier argument that the DNA on the firearm allegedly did not match Lanez's and could have belonged to a woman.

In response, on May 22, Megan’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, released a detailed 31-page rebuttal addressing every part of the defense's new argument. He clarified that the bodyguard referenced by Lanez’s team wasn’t even at the scene the night of the shooting. The surveillance footage had already been shown to the jury during the original trial, and forensic experts had determined with 90 percent certainty that the DNA on the gun was male. Spiro accused Lanez’s defense of spreading misleading information and attempting to rewrite a case that had already been decided by a jury.

A few days earlier, Megan addressed the renewed controversy in a candid TikTok video, stating plainly: “YOU SHOT ME… Ain’t no new evidence.” Her frustration was evident since it wasn’t the first time she had spoken out against the ongoing attempts to discredit her.

In January 2025, a judge granted her a five-year restraining order against Lanez after she claimed he was trying to intimidate her from prison.

Public opinion remains polarized, as artists like Drake, Chris Brown, Ye, and Kodak Black have publicly supported Lanez, while unproblematic artists such as SZA have stood by Megan, calling out the bullying she’s endured. The conversation has extended beyond the music world. Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna has even suggested the possibility of a pardon for Lanez after being lobbied by Amber Rose, a move that shows how entangled the case has become in both celebrity culture and politics.

Lanez’s time in prison has not been without incident: on May 12, just days before his legal team’s press conference, Lanez was stabbed 14 times by another inmate, suffering two collapsed lungs, needing to be rushed to a nearby hospital where he was stabilized. The prison attack is currently under investigation.

Despite the headlines, there has been no actual new evidence strong enough to reopen the case or change the outcome. Megan’s team remains firm that the facts haven’t changed since the trial: Tory Lanez was found guilty by a jury, the evidence was overwhelming, and attempts to shift the narrative are not supported by the legal record. Still, in the age of social media, public opinion often acts like its own courtroom, shaped more by rumors and misinformation than by facts. What started as a painful and private experience has turned into a long public conflict, exposing how often women must repeatedly defend and relieve their pain simply to have it recognized.