What Really Happened When Megan Thee Stallion Got Shot
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Rap artist Megan Thee Stallion opened up about her violent ordeal in an emotional video yesterday.
On July 15, the 25-year-old announced on Instagram: “I suffered gunshot wounds as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me.”
She continued, “I was never arrested, the police officers drove me to the hospital where I underwent surgery to remove the bullets. I’m incredibly grateful to be alive and that I’m expected to make a full recovery, but it was important for me to clarify the details about this traumatic night.”
The coverage of the shooting has proven to be racially charged and full of inaccuracies. TMZ originally reported a very different one from the one that Megan told. In their original, now-disproven report, TMZ claimed that police had responded to a disturbance call centered on a couple arguing in an SUV. Witness reported gunshots, but TMZ stated that “someone fired shots in the air.”
The report continued to describe how police tracked down the SUV and found Megan Thee Stallion with “a cut on her foot believed to be from broken glass on the floor of the vehicle.” With her was rapper Tory Lanez and an unidentified woman. Law enforcement reportedly found a gun in the vehicle and charged Lanez with a felony.
According to both Megan and revised reports on TMZ, she was the victim of a shooting on July 12, not merely a cut on her foot.
In the Instagram Live video yesterday, Megan confirmed that she was, indeed, shot. “I was shot in both of my feet and I had to get surgery to get… the bullets taken out,” she said. “It was super scary. It was just the worst experience of my life.”
Megan got angry when she talked about the memes and jokes that flooded social media. “It’s not funny. It’s nothing to joke about and nothing for y’all to go and be making fake stories about. I didn’t put my hands on nobody. I didn’t deserve to get shot. I didn’t do (expletive).”
She shouldn’t have had to defend herself against tasteless jokes. It’s truly bizarre that this woman wasn’t treated with a modicum of respect or kindness after being shot. Her famous peers, such as Chrissy Teigen and 50 Cent, instead took the opportunity to crack jokes or speculate about what Megan might have done to provoke the violence against her.
We sincerely hope that she gets the time and support needed to recover from what happened to her. Megan didn’t deserve to be shot–and she deserved a lot better than to be turned into a meme.