Sean Kelly, an alleged eye witness to the 2020 incident in which Megan Thee Stallion was shot, offered confusing and contradictory testimony Tuesday (Dec. 20) about what really happened, saying he never actually saw a gun — but also that he saw a man matching Tory Lanez’s description holding one, and that Megan’s former friend and assistant Kelsey Harris may also have fired.
During the seventh day of the blockbuster trial, Kelly (a key witness for Lanez’s defense team) testified that when he first looked outside his home on the night of the incident, he saw Megan and Harris kicking and punching each other outside of a vehicle. “They were pulling their hair and hitting each other. It was quite violent,” he told Lanez’s attorney George Mgdesyan.
Shortly after a man matching the description of Lanez’s driver Jaquan Smith got out of the car and attempted to separate them, Kelly says he heard a shot fired. He said a man matching Lanez’s description then exited the car, leading to a scuffle between all four people — and that four or five more shots then rang out.
Lanez’s defense team has suggested throughout the trial that Harris, not Lanez, potentially pulled the trigger, partly based on an earlier interview Kelly gave to them in Jan. 2021. In confusing testimony that repeatedly contradicted itself, Kelly didn’t offer much clarity on that point. The alleged witness, who called 911 but never identified the shooters on that call, first said he “never saw a gun” and “just saw flashes” and that he believed one of the women fired it — before later appearing to confirm that he saw Lanez (referred to as “the shorter guy”) holding the weapon.
“Did you see the shorter guy with a gun in his hand?” asked Mgdesyan.
“Yes,” answered Kelly.
Later in his testimony, Kelly said he witnessed three of the people beating one of the women in the street as she was curled in a ball, before hearing the man matching Smith’s description say, “The cops are coming!” He then said he saw someone in the group pick the woman up — at which point he believed the group was going to attempt to throw her into a nearby creek. “It appeared to me they were trying to kill her. Dragged her across the street and picked her up,” he said.
Kelly became visibly agitated during cross-examination from the prosecution, when he once again testified that he saw the man matching Lanez’s description shooting the gun, saying “the short guy was agitated; he got out of the car. His arm was stretched out and he was firing everywhere. Four or five shots.” At this point, Lanez, wearing a white turtleneck under a white jacket, looked on sternly, his eyes bulging as he listened to Kelly’s testimony.
During the redirect with Mgdesyan, Kelly once again appeared to contradict his own version of events, stating, “I believe the girl [Harris] fired the first shot.”
Kelly’s testimony came more than a week into a closely-watched trial over the July 12, 2020 incident, during which prosecutors say Lanez yelled “Dance, b—-” and shot at Megan’s feet, striking her at least once. He’s charged with three felony counts — assault with a firearm, gun possession and discharging a firearm with gross negligence — and could face as much as 22 years in prison if convicted.
The first week of the trial saw gripping testimony from Megan herself, who recounted the alleged shooting, pinned the blame on Lanez, and said, “I wish he had just shot and killed me.” Later in the week, Harris — expected to be a star witness for the prosecution — largely failed to re-affirm previous statements pinning the blame on Lanez. But on Friday (Dec. 16), prosecutors played recordings of those earlier statements, in which Harris clearly stated that Lanez had shot the Grammy-winning rapper and then tried to buy both women’s silence with million-dollar bribes.
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