A$AP Rocky must stand trial over charges he fired a gun at a friend.
The 35-year-old rapper, real name Rakim Mayers, could be jailed for nine years if he’s found guilty.
An LA judge made the call on Monday during a preliminary hearing attended by Mayers, who shares two children with Rihanna.
Prosecutors claim that two years ago the A-lister fired a handgun at Terell Ephron.
Mayers has pleaded not guilty.
He is facing two felony accounts of assault with a firearm, BBC reports.
Ephron was part of Mayers’ hip-hop collective A$AP Mob and went to high school in New York with the Grammy-nominated rapper.
In a separate lawsuit, Ephron – known as A$AP Relli – has claimed that he’s a victim of emotional distress, assault and battery and negligence.
Ephron claims he was ‘lured’ to an ‘obscure location’ outside LA’s W Hotel on November 6 2021 to iron out a disagreement.
Earlier this month, an LA detective testified CCTV footage of the alleged assault appeared to show Mayers firing a gun.
However, Mayers’ lawyers insist it’s not him in the footage.
When it came to Superior Court Judge ML Villar’s decision to make Mayers stand trial they only decided whether the case had sufficient evidence – not whether a crime was committed.
In a resulting lawsuit, Ephron claimed after an exchange of heated words that Mayers ‘pulled out a handgun and purposefully pointed it in the direction of [Ephron] and fired multiple shots’.
His left hand was ‘struck by bullet projectile/fragments’ and Ephron needed medical attention.
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He’s seeking £20,000 in damages.
Mayers was arrested in April 2022 in connection to the shooting after landing at Los Angeles Airport following a trip to Barbados with his then-pregnant girlfriend Rihanna.
Police took the star into custody at the airport while LAPD officers searched his home at the same time.
Rihanna was thought to have been shocked as she watched the scene unfold.
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