Rihanna appears again at A$AP Rocky’s gun assault trial as ex-friend testifies
Rihanna appears again at A$AP Rocky’s gun assault trial as ex-friend testifies
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Grammy award-winning singer’s presence eclipsed key testimony about the 2021 street shooting. The most important testimony at the trial of the rapper A$AP Rocky got second billing for a second day as superstar Rihanna sat quietly in the audience. Rihanna, A$AP Rocky’s partner, appeared at his Los Angeles trial again on Thursday, sitting between his sister and mother. Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelston Mayers, is facing trial on two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, accused by a former friend, A$AP Relli, of firing a gun at him in 2021.
A$AP Relli, who was born Terell Ephron, was expected to face a fierce cross-examination on Thursday. In testimony in previous days, he has described the night in November 2021 when he and Rocky, their relationship straining, had a confrontation and scuffled on a Hollywood street, and Rocky pointed a gun at him before walking away. Relli testified that he was shouting at Rocky as he walked after him, then Rocky pulled the gun again and held it in the air.
“He turned around and then it was like BOOM!” Relli told the jury. “The whole thing was like a movie, he kind of like pointed down and he shot the first shot.”. He said he felt a burning on his hand where a bullet grazed it. Relli testified Rocky fired another shot that he didn’t see because he had hidden behind a mutual friend. He said, “I felt my hand hot,” and later added: “I was hit. Or I was grazed. I didn’t have a hole or nothing.”.
Rocky’s lawyer says the shots he fired were not even from a real gun – they were blanks from a starter pistol that he carried as a prop. The lawyer said Relli knew this, and that was why he was so fearless walking after him. “Oh it was a real gun,” Relli testified under prosecution questioning, saying he knew because of his scraped hand. Since the shooting and his decision to go to police and testify, he said he had received death threats, been shunned as a snitch and saw the modest music management career he built fall apart.
“It’s been a living hell,” Relli said. About an hour after the shooting, Relli returned to the scene and said he photographed and recovered two shell casings. Earlier, while responding to a report of a shooting, police did not find any. He sent a text to Rocky that was shown in court saying: “U try killing me.”. Rocky denied it in his reply: “Bro wtf is u talkin bout why u tell ppl I shot at u.”.
