A$AP Rocky fired blank shots from a prop gun in order to protect his friend, his lawyer has said on the first day of his trial.
The US rapper is accused of firing a gun at Terell Ephron, a former childhood friend who testified their relationship had soured and a feud allegedly came to a head on the night of 6 November 2021.
Jurors were shown surveillance videos a prosecutor argued made it clear Rocky fired a gun at Ephron outside a parking garage in Hollywood.
But Rocky’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said in the defence opening statement the video evidence is meaningless without the testimony of the accuser, Ephron, who he argued is driven by “jealousy, lies and greed”. He said: “This case rises or falls on his credibility.”
He said the gun was actually a “starter pistol” that only shot blanks which Rocky carried for protection, something he argued Ephron knew.
The first video shown by the prosecution showed a physical struggle between two men, with two others intervening, when one of them – wearing a black hoodie – pulls out a gun and points it, but does not fire.
“The evidence in this case will show that the man in the black sweatshirt is the defendant, Rakim Mayers,” said Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec, using Rocky’s legal name. “That evidence will be uncontradicted.”
Rocky has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Read more from Sky News:
Shackled men led on to US military jet as immigration arrests rise
‘Unduly lenient’ sentence for Southport killer to be reviewed
Trump orders JFK assassination files to be made public
‘He never believed he was going to be shot’
Mr Przelomiec told the jurors the four men in the video had all been members of the A$AP Collective and were old friends.
Ephron will testify he had been in a disagreement with Rocky and believed when they met up they would argue but reconcile, the prosecutor said.
Arriving at the court
The situation changed when Rocky pulled out a gun, but Ephron still pursued him as he walked away, Mr Przelomiec said, adding: “In his state of mind he never believed he was going to be shot.”
The defence lawyer argued Ephron was not scared because he “knew that gun wasn’t real”.
Scraped knuckles
Mr Przelomiec showed jurors a photo of bloody scrapes on Ephron’s knuckles which he said may have come from the shooting, but were irrelevant to the charges.
Mr Tacopina argued Ephron had actually been the aggressor and Rocky had fired blank shots from his prop gun to stop him from attacking one of their A$AP crew members who was with him, which was why Ephron scraped his knuckles.
He also said seven officers who searched the scene found neither shell casings nor a weapon.
Rapper turned down prosecution plea offer
The trial comes after the rapper turned down a final prosecution plea offer – to plead guilty to one of his two felony counts and serve 180 days in prison.
It means he faces a potential maximum jail sentence of 24 years if he is found guilty by jurors.
The trial is set to last about three weeks.
Rocky, a Grammy-nominated star, is in a relationship with Rihanna, and the couple have two toddler sons. The Umbrella singer was not in court.
Rocky has been named as one of the celebrity chairmen of this year’s Met Gala in May and has a major role in a Spike Lee-directed film with Denzel Washington to be released soon after.