Tory Lanez refuses to apologize after he was convicted of shooting rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the foot following a Los Angeles party in 2020, despite taking responsibility for the incident prior to his sentencing.
"I have never let a hard time intimidate me. I will never let no jail time eliminate me. Regardless of how they try to spin my words, I have always maintained my innocence and I always will," the Canadian rapper said in an Instagram statement addressed to his "Umbrella" fan group.
Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, shot Megan, the three-time Grammy winner whose legal name is Megan Pete, after a party at the Hollywood Hills home of reality star and makeup mogul Kylie Jenner on July 12, 2020.
A jury convicted Lanez, who pleaded not guilty, in December of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Before the sentence was handed down, Lanez addressed the court and apologized for his actions. He said he took full responsibility for the shooting, telling the judge, "If I could change it, I would, but I can’t."
"Everything I did that night, I take full responsibility. I truly am just trying to be a better person," he added.
In his Instagram post on Thursday, however, the 31-year-old rapper said he was only taking "responsibility for all verbal and intimate moments that I shared with the parties involved ... That's it."
"In no way shape or form was I apologizing for the charges I'm being wrongfully convicted of," he wrote. "I remain on the stance that I refuse to apologize for something that I did not do."
The rapper said he will continue to fight "till I come out victorious." He ended his statement by thanking his family, friends and fans for their support. "See you soon," he wrote.
Megan had testified during the trial that Lanez shouted for her to "dance" and fired a gun toward her feet when she walked away from an SUV the pair were in with two other people. She told the court that she initially told police she had cut her feet on glass when she was asked why she was bleeding. Doctors at the hospital later found bullet fragments in her foot that required surgery.
In an interview on "CBS Mornings" last year before the trial, she told Gayle King that she initially lied to police because she feared getting into a more dangerous situation.
"You think I’m about to tell the police that we ... us Black people got a gun in the car?" she said. "You want me to tell the law that we got a gun in the car so they can shoot all of us up?"
Megan, who named Lanez as the shooter in an Instagram Live video and addressed the incident in her song "Shots Fired," also testified that she still has nerve damage, can't really feel the back of her left foot, and has to push through the pain of the back of her feet always being sore.
She also told the court that Lanez offered her $1 million to keep quiet about the shooting.
Matthew Barhoma, a member of Lanez’s legal team, said they plan to appeal the sentence and conviction.