Some stories end with a verdict. This one ended with a verdict, a sentence, two lost appeals, a restraining order, a defamation trial and, this week, a gym campaign. Megan Thee Stallion was shot in both feet in the early hours of July 12, 2020, and for six years the internet has kept asking how it ended. Here is the honest answer: legally it is over, and Megan has been busy proving she is more than the worst night of her life.
What happened that July night
Megan, her then-friend Kelsey Harris and the rapper Tory Lanez were leaving a party in the Hollywood Hills in an SUV when an argument broke out. Megan got out of the car. At the 2022 trial she testified that Lanez ordered her to “dance”, using a slur, and fired at her feet. She also testified that he then offered her and Harris $1 million to stay quiet, saying he could not go to jail because he was already on probation.
That night Lanez was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon. Megan first described her injuries without naming anyone; in August 2020 she said on Instagram Live that Lanez shot her. In October 2020 she wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, “Why I Speak Up for Black Women”. (Our 2023 version credited it to “The Times”; wrong newspaper, right point.) What strikes me now is how long she carried it alone before saying a name, and how much of the next two years was spent being disbelieved online.
The trial: who said what
The Los Angeles County District Attorney charged Lanez in October 2020. At the December 2022 trial the defense argued that Harris fired the gun during a jealous fight over Lanez; Megan testified that she had a sexual relationship with him that Harris did not know about. Harris herself was a reluctant witness, and prosecutors used her earlier statements to investigators, in which she identified Lanez as the shooter. Forensic tests on the gun were inconclusive, which the defense leaned on hard.
The jury did not buy the alternative version. On December 23, 2022, Lanez was convicted on three felony counts: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. My read: an inconclusive lab result is not an alibi, and twelve people sat through the whole thing while the comment sections only watched clips.
Ten years, not twenty
Our old article said Lanez got “more than 20 years”. He did not. On August 8, 2023, Judge David Herriford sentenced him to 10 years. In her statement read in court, Megan said: “Since I was viciously shot by the defendant, I have not experienced a single day of peace.” The judge’s line was shorter: “Actions have consequences, and there are no winners in this case.”
Lanez kept fighting. On November 12, 2025, California’s Second District Court of Appeal affirmed all three convictions, and on February 25, 2026, the California Supreme Court declined to review the case. Reports put his parole eligibility in 2029. Since then the only live case is his own: a $100 million lawsuit against the state prison system over a May 2025 stabbing at the Tehachapi prison, which the state is contesting.
Megan’s own court wins
The verdict did not stop the harassment, so Megan went back to court herself. On January 9, 2025, a Los Angeles judge granted her a five-year restraining order against Lanez, running to 2030, after she accused him of attacking her through third-party bloggers from prison. On December 1, 2025, a Miami federal jury found one of those bloggers, Milagro Gramz, liable for promoting a sexually explicit deepfake of Megan and for intentional infliction of emotional distress; the final judgment was $59,000. The amount is modest. The message to anyone running a gossip account (we noticed) is not.
The life after
She also told the story in her own words, literally: the Prime Video documentary Megan Thee Stallion: Her Words arrived in October 2024, the same year as her album Megan. In the summer of 2025 she went public with NBA star Klay Thompson; on April 25, 2026, she ended it, saying “Trust, fidelity and respect are non-negotiable for me in a relationship.” Hours later she closed her Broadway debut as Zidler in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Thompson has not commented.
And on October 13, 2026, Gymshark named her its first-ever celebrity ambassador. “I just want to encourage everyone to find the best routine that works for them, show up consistently and take on the gym with confidence,” she said. A woman who was told to dance at gunpoint now sells shorts for squats on her own terms; I will take that as a better ending than any court could write.
My take
So how did the shooting story end? With the man convicted, every appeal spent, a restraining order in place and the woman he shot still working, still posting, still Houston’s loudest export. The law gave her a verdict. The rest, the documentary, the stage, the Gymshark campaign, she took back herself, and that is the part I would print on the front page.
Sources
- Megan Thee Stallion on Instagram: Megan Does Gym, October 2026
- Megan Thee Stallion on Instagram (@theestallion)
- The New York Times: Megan Thee Stallion, “Why I Speak Up for Black Women” (Oct 2020)
- California Courts Newsroom: CA Supreme Court won’t review case of rapper Tory Lanez (Feb 2026)
- Inside Edition: Megan Thee Stallion Tearfully Describes 2020 Shooting
- NBC News: Megan Thee Stallion testifies (Dec 2022)
- ET: Tory Lanez sentenced to 10 years (Aug 2023)
- AP via NY1: Court denies Tory Lanez’s appeal (Nov 2025)
- mxdwn: Megan granted five-year restraining order (Jan 2025)
- Rolling Stone: Megan Thee Stallion wins trial against Milagro Gramz (Dec 2025)
- CNN via CP24: Fans rally to Megan after Klay Thompson breakup (Apr 2026)
- Billboard: Megan Thee Stallion is Gymshark’s first-ever celebrity ambassador (Oct 2026)
