On Wednesday, January 29, Pop star Rihanna made an appearance at a Los Angeles courtroom in support of Husband/rapper A$AP Rocky, who faces charges from a shooting incident back in 2021. Rihanna sat alongside the rapper’s family as the trial explored serious allegations against him, including pulling a gun on his former friend and opening fire multiple times.
The trial, which started on January 24, 2025, will decide if A$AP Rocky will be ordered to pay criminal penalties for two felony assault charges and face decades behind bars upon conviction. A$AP Rocky has pleaded not guilty, and his defense team contended the weapon in question was a prop gun, adding that his former friend was seeking financial gain from Rocky.
Charges against Asap Rocky revolve around a shooting incident in Hollywood back in November 2021. The rapper has been hit with two felony charges over an altercation with his former friend, Terell Ephron, aka A$AP Relli.
Prosecutors contend the altercation turned physical when A$AP Rocky pulled a gun on Ephron and fired. The prosecution claims the rapper pointed the gun toward Ephron, told him he would kill him, and then shot several times, grazing Ephron’s knuckles. Surveillance footage has been played and audio of the gunfire, but the shooting itself wasn’t caught on camera to serve as visual evidence.
Terell Ephron, a fellow artist and childhood friend of A$AP Rocky, is the key accuser/victim in the case. The two men were once part of the A$AP Mob hip-hop collective and shared a long history from their high school days in New York. However, as A$AP Rocky’s career took off, their relationship began to fall apart.
Ephron took the stand to testify about their friendship leading up to the alleged shooting incident. According to him, the incident occurred outside a Hollywood hotel on November 6, 2021, after a heated disagreement. Ephron said after the altercation, Rocky pulled out a gun, threatened him, and later fired multiple shots as they walked away from each other.
The defense team for A$AP Rocky is fighting the charges with the claim that the gun in question was not real but a prop to serve security purposes. The defense team says Rocky’s security team encouraged him to carry the weapon out for protection against would-be attackers.
The defense also challenged the timing of Ephron’s report to the police. Immediately after the incident, Ephron did not go directly to the hospital but flew to New York and reported the shooting two days later. The police arriving at the scene had also found no evidence of gunshots or bullet casings, though Ephron subsequently recovered two shell casings from that area, claiming he himself had found them.
If convicted on both counts, A$AP Rocky could get a sentence of 24 years. The trial is expected to last about three weeks, with a panel of 12 jurors in control of Rocky’s fate.
