A$AP Rocky faces trial for alleged shooting: Everything we know

Rapper A$AP Rocky will go on trial in October for allegedly shooting his childhood friend on a Los Angeles street corner more than two years ago.

The father of Rhianna's two children, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm after allegedly shooting rapper A$AP Relli.

A$AP Rocky, 35, is scheduled to appear in court on October 21. If the rapper wants to file a motion to dismiss the case, he must do so by July 19, according to the judge.

A$AP's attorney, Sara Caplan, said she is still waiting for medical records related to Rellis' alleged hospitalization, Rolling Stone reported.

Newsweek I contacted Caplan but did not receive an immediate response.

The alleged shooting

At a preliminary hearing last November, prosecutors showed video of the alleged gun attack on November 6, 2021, at the corner of Selma and Vista Del Mar Avenues in Hollywood.

The video shows a man, whose face is not visible, walking along the sidewalk near a parking garage. He turns around and begins to fight with another person. The two retreat from the camera's view, their hands still around each other's necks. A third person tries to separate the two.

Prosecutors said the video captured the beginning of the altercation between A$AP Rocky and A$AP Relli, whose real name is Terell Ephron.

A Los Angeles Police Department detective testified in November that video from the parking garage showed A$AP Rocky holding a gun. He later acknowledged that no weapons were recovered in the case and said the video was inconclusive.

While the video shown does not contain any sound, other surveillance footage from other buildings nearby shows alleged gunshots.

Supreme Court Judge ML Villar said she took into account that Relli had said he was allegedly shot, saying she only needed “a shred of evidence” from the prosecution to establish probable cause.

In his statement, Relli claimed he was the victim of an armed ambush. Relli had sent A$AP Rocky a text message about how “conceitful” the rapper was and how he had not paid for a friend's funeral expenses as promised. The text, dated October 28, read “You are so damn fake it's sad,” which was shown in court.

A$AP Rocky never responded to the text message.

After the conversation, Relli said he was in a car with A$AP Bari, whose real name is Jabari Shelton. Bari was allegedly on the phone, and Relli heard A$AP Rocky in the car saying “he was going to beat me up, I was emotional.”

Relli claims that A$AP Rocky contacted her over a week later, on November 6, 2021. The two agreed to a face-to-face meeting, which Relli says was the catalyst for the alleged shooting.

“I talked a lot of shit,” Ephron said in his testimony. “I didn't do anything physically. I was just so angry. I didn't like it and I wanted him to hear my side. I knew I would never see that man again.”

He said A$AP Rocky fired several shots before fleeing and the first shot “grazed” his left hand.

Based on the video and Rellis' testimony, Villar ruled at the preliminary hearing that “there is sufficient evidence to establish the commission of the crimes charged against him and that there are more than sufficient probabilities to believe that Mayers is guilty of the crime charged against him.”

Joe Tacopina, A$AP Rocky's defense attorney, had previously called the allegations a “false scenario.” Tacopina also said Relli tried to get money from A$AP Rocky.

Who is A$AP Rocky?

A$AP Rocky began his music career as a member of the hip hop group ASAP Mob.

In August 2011, his single “Peso” was leaked online, but within weeks it was playing on the radio. A$AP Rocky signed to Polo Grounds Music and released his debut mixtape that same year.

A$AP Rocky's debut studio album, “Long. Live. A$AP,” was certified double platinum upon its release in 2013.

The rapper has won a BET Award, two BET Hip Hop Awards, an MTV Video Music Award in Japan, and an MTVU Woodie Award. A$AP Rocky has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and six World Music Awards.

A$AP Rocky has been in a relationship with Rihanna since 2013. The couple has two children, RZA and Riot Rose.

Rocky was first arrested in April 2023 for the November 2021 shooting. He was released from custody on $550,000 bail.

The rapper was previously arrested in Sweden in 2019 for simple assault. Videos uploaded to the rapper's Instagram show him and his entourage repeatedly asking the two young men to stop following them. A second clip shows the man accusing A$AP Rocky of manipulation hitting the rapper's bodyguard with his headphones.

A$AP Rocky spent over a month in prison.