Prosecutor says videos don’t leave that A $ AP Rocky fired a gun against his former friend

A prosecutor showed jurist a series of surveillance videos on Friday that he said when he was taken as a whole, it makes it clear that A $ AP Rocky fired a gun against his former friend in 2021.

Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec held a sober, straightforward presentation under opening declarations in the trial against hip-hop star, fashion stomach and actor. It was almost exclusively dependent on video visions and sound from a 911 call.

“What almost immediately becomes clear is that this is not a complicated case,” said Przelomiec.

The first video caught from nearby but partially blocked showed a physical battle between two men – with two others intervening – outside a parking garage in Hollywood the night of November 6, 2021. One of them wearing a Black hoodie, pulling out of a gun and pointing it, but doesn’t fire it.

“The evidence in this case will show that the man in the black sweatshirt is the accused, Rakim Mayers,” said Przelomiec, using Rocky’s legal name. “That proof will be unmatched.”

Rocky has pleaded not guilty of two crimes with assaults with a semi -automatic firearm, prosecutors that could lead to up to 24 years in prison. His lawyers will make their opening declaration later Friday.

Przelomiec showed two more videos of the moment from other cameras, minutes after the first confrontation when he said shots were fired around a block away. One shows a mixture between four men in a small picture in the corner of the frame. The other, shot at the same time, catches two shooting sounds.

He also played a call of 911 from minutes later.

“There has been a shooting,” says a woman with an Australian accent. “We saw it. There were four men and they were kind of battles. ”

The four men were all old friends, Przelomiec told the juries. They had all been members of A $ AP Collective, a crew of creators created at a high school in New York around 2006.

Together with Rocky and two friends who were with him in Los Angeles for a concert performance, they included the prosecutor, A $ AP Relli, whose legal name is Terell Ephron.

Ephron will testify that the two had been increased. Ephron thought that when they met near the W hot, they would claim, but unite, the prosecutor said. It changed quickly as Rocky pulled out a gun. But Ephron still pursued him as he walked away.

“In his state of mind, he never thought he would be shot,” said Przelomiec.

Ephron was not seriously injured. Przelomiec showed jurist a photo of small, bloody scratches on Ephron’s knuckles, which he said might have come from the shooting, but it was irrelevant to the charges.

Przelomiec also showed text messages from approx. 90 minutes after the incident where Rocky denies something that happened.

“You’re trying to kill me,” read a message from Ephron.

Rocky responds, “WTF IZ UT talking about.”

The defense plans to call witnesses to testify that a firearm seen on a security video is a starter gun that Rocky had as a plug for security.

And they are likely to make hay of the fact that officers searching on stage neither found Shell -lining pipes, a weapon or any suspect.

Ephron went to police two days later and presented a couple of 9 mm shell cabinets, which he said he had picked up himself.

The prosecutor recognized all this in his presentation along with another fact that the defense will dwell on: that Ephron would have money from Rocky.

Ephron has brought a civilian trial about the incident, and Przelomiec showed a text from him to another friend from shortly after the incident and said he would get Rocky’s money because “he shot at me.”

The defense is likely to say that is the reason, despite a search for the site of many police officers, no shell cabinets were found on site near Hollywood and wines. Police did not restore a gun in the case.

Rocky sat in the courtroom watching with his lawyers wearing a gray suit. His mother and sister were among the supporters sitting in his section. Rihanna, his long -time partner and mother of his two toddler sons, was not in court.

Rocky’s lawyer says it is unlikely that Rihanna would appear in the courtroom during the trial, and her name may not come up at all, although it often did during the election of the jury when many potential juryists said they were fans.

Ephron will be the central figure in the trial and the defense will try to tear down his credibility.

“He is the witness that this case will rise and fall on, for sure,” said Rocky’s lawyer Joe Tacopina after a recent prior consultation. “Whether he is a star is something that is to see.”