US rapper A$AP Rocky had only a prop gun in shooting case: Lawyer

LOS ANGELES – American rapper A$AP Rocky was carrying a harmless prop gun from a music video on the night he allegedly shot a former friend in Hollywood, his lawyer told the court on Jan 24, as his trial on assault charges got under way.

The 36-year-old faces two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm during confrontations with fellow rapper Terell Ephron on Nov 6, 2021.

A$AP Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was arrested in April 2022 at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving on a private plane from Barbados, where he and his partner Rihanna had been on vacation. The rapper has two sons, aged one and two, with the 36-year-old Barbadian pop star.

Prosecutors say Mayers pulled a gun on Ephron – also known as A$AP Relli – after a heated argument in the heart of Hollywood, firing on one occasion and causing a minor graze.

The two had previously been friends, and had been part of A$AP Mob, a hip-hop collective from New York. But they had fallen out because other members of the group felt Mayers’ commercial success had made him arrogant.

Ephron’s resentment “is the catalyst for this incident”, Mayers’ attorney Joe Tacopina said. “It was Relli who was looking for a fight,” he said, adding that CCTV footage from the scene showed it was Relli who made the first physical contact.

Mr Tacopina said the gun that Ephron alleges was pulled on him was a prop that was not capable of firing live bullets.

“The video that you saw shows Rocky holding an object that appears to be the gun, and Relli seized on that and manufactured his extortion,” he said.

“The evidence will make clear that the object (was) absolutely nothing more than a prop gun... a starter gun, a blank gun, a fake gun. It’s used in pop movies and music videos.”

Describing Ephron as “a criminal and a perjurer”, Mr Tacopina said seven police officers searched the scene of the shooting hours later, but found neither shell casings nor a weapon.

Yet, after officers left, Ephron returned to the scene and discovered a pair of 9mm shell casings he said he had picked up from the street where he was shot at, the lawyer said.

With this planted “evidence”, Relli set out to extort money from his now-successful former friend.

“The evidence will show you nothing more than a money grab, nothing more, a clear intended extortion by Relli (to fund an) extravagant lifestyle,” Mr Tacopina said.

The trial continues on Jan 28.

Before the trial began, Mayers rejected an offered plea deal that would have seen him serve six months in jail in exchange for admitting one of the charges against him.

A$AP Rocky shot to fame in the first half of the last decade with two mega-selling albums: Long. Live. A$AP (2013) and At. Long. Last. A$AP (2015).

In 2019, he was given a suspended prison sentence in Sweden after a fight, in an affair that caused diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Washington, pushing US President Donald Trump to intervene. AFP