Prosecutors Say the Gun That Shot Megan Thee Stallion Was Fired on Purpose and DNA Results on Gun are Inconclusive
An expert on firearms investigated the gun that was used to shoot Megan Thee Stallion in 2020, and the findings were presented on the fifth day of Tory Lanez’s shooting trial. The expert, Srinivasan Rathinam, and the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) concluded that the gun must have been fired with intention. Rathinam shared his uncertainty about the shooting being an accident in court while he presented the results.
The gun believed to have inflicted gunshot wounds on Megan Thee Stallion is a semiautomatic 9mm luger calibre firearm, which the police found on the floorboard of the black SUV that Megan, Tory, and Kelsey were riding in after attending an event at Kylie Jenner’s house in 2020. According to Rathinam, the firearm requires 8.5 pounds of force to pull the trigger.
“If you just tap the trigger, it won’t fire…you need to pull the trigger all the way down,” he explained to the courtroom. He stated that the four cartridge casings the police found at the scene after the shooting and a fifth casing found by a neighbour the following day matched the firearm.
According to the prosecution, police found the “warm” gun on a cool night in a “slide-lock position,” indicating that all the ammunition had been fired, which was five rounds. Megan was struck in various places on her foot, and bullet fragments were left inside.
On July 12, 2020, the prosecutors and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office accused Tory Lanez of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in her leg. Tory pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his attorney claimed that Megan’s ex-friend Kelsey Harris was the one who pulled the trigger. Harris appeared in court last Thursday and refuted the allegations.
Tory, born Daystar Peterson, is facing multiple assault charges: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, personal use of a firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence relating to the conflict. Should Tory be convicted, he could face up to 22 years in prison.
LAPD criminalist Randy Zepeda testified on behalf of the prosecution, saying that DNA is not always left behind or discovered on things. Zepeda said that Lanez’s DNA was not discovered on the gun’s magazine, but the handgun’s DNA results were inconclusive. Marc Scott Taylor, a forensic scientist and the first witness for the defence, concurred with Zepeda’s conclusions. The trial will continue on Monday morning.
