Rapper Megan Thee Stallion recalled the harrowing shooting incident in 2020 when Canadian rapper Tory Lanez shot her in the feet and then offered money for her to keep quiet about it.
Stallion broke her silence about the traumatic events that occurred after attending a party at Kylie Jenner's house in the Hollywood hills.
In her first televised interview about the incident, the "Sweetest Pie" rapper from Houston told CBS Morning's Gayle King what Lanez told her after he shot her in the feet multiple times.
“He said, ‘I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell nobody. I’ll give y’all $1 million if y’all don’t say nothing'."
"And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Why are you offering me money right now? Help me. And if you’re sorry, just help me'."
You can watch the CBS Mornings interview, here.
Stallion told King she was in the car with the driver—her close friend from Houston, Kelsey Harris—and Lanez when an argument broke out.
At one point, she asked the driver to pull over.
"I should've stayed out of the car. I should've not got back in the car," she said.
She was convinced to get back inside the vehicle, but the argument just got worse.
When she got out of the car a second time, Lanez took aim at her from over the car window and pulled the trigger multiple times.
An emotional Stallion recalled, "everything happened so fast."
"I was really scared because I had never been shot at before," she said through tears.
She said she found herself crawling in someone else's driveway as a result of her injuries. That was when Lanez allegedly offered her the hush money.
By that point, a neighbor who heard the gunshots had called the police and there was a helicopter involved–which introduced another grave concern.
“The George Floyd incident had just happened and police are very much ’shoot first, ask questions after',” said Stallion. “I’ve been shot and they’re about to kill somebody. Something bad is about to happen.”
When responding officers asked her what happened, the only thing on her mind was, "I don't want them to kill any of us or shoot any of us."
Because she was noticeably bleeding from her gunshot wounds, she told the police she had stepped on glass.
"For some reason, I was just trying to protect all of us," she told Gayle in response to being asked why she lied.
"Because I didn't want them to kill us...My first reaction was just, 'try to save us.'"
She continued:
“So when I see people try and use that against me, to say I was lying ... I was lying to protect all of us."
"Sometimes I wish I really would have never said that and told the truth.”
Stallion was later taken to the hospital, where a doctor performed surgery on her gunshot wounds. She still has bullet fragments in her feet that were "too small to attempt retrieval."
Lanez has denied all allegations tied to the shooting and pleaded not guilty to assault with a semiautomatic handgun in late November 2020.
The felony assault case is still active, and Lanez is scheduled for a court ruling in September.
If convicted, the rapper could face a maximum sentence of 22 years and eight months in state prison.
When CBS Mornings reached out to Lanez's attorney about the incident, they offered:
“We look forward to addressing Ms. Pete’s claims ― including all its inconsistencies, discrepancies and omissions ― in a court of law.”
When King asked Stallion how she was doing in the aftermath of the shooting, she said her anxiety was getting worse and that her relationship with people was "cold" because she is not as trusting as she was before.
"I got this wall and I don't want to make any friends, and I'm trying to be as nice as I can to everybody."
Stallion, who lost her mother Holly Thomas in 2019 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, added:
"Half the time I just want to pick up the phone and call my mom and be like, 'what do I do?'"
"It's too much. I feel crazy. I'm sad but I feel like I have to hold it in and be strong for people."
To those who still believe she was not a shooting victim, Stallion said:
"I don't think any of this is for them. It's for me. I know this happened to me. And I'd rather it play out in court and let the facts come out than me having to plead my case."
“I’m the victim. I’m not defending myself against anything. Something happened to me.”
