A$AP Rocky pleads not guilty to assault charges over alleged 2021 shooting
A$AP Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers) has pleaded not guilty to two charges of assault with a semi-automatic firearm.
He is accused of shooting A$AP Mob member A$AP Relli – real name Terell Ephron – during an altercation in 2021.
Mayers was charged earlier this week after after Relli claimed he was shot by the rapper last November.
Today (August 17), he was barred from possessing any firearms or ammunition and prohibited from contacting or coming within 100 yards of Ephron, reports Rolling Stone.
Mayers’ lawyer Sara L. Caplan asked Judge Victoria Wilson if the rapper was permitted to travel for work before the judge ruled that he should “clear dates” with the prosecutors.
A$AP Rocky is currently scheduled to headline Rolling Loud New York at Citi Field in Queens on September 24.
Mayers spoke only to agree that his next court date would be set for November 2.
The alleged shooting initially went unreported, however back in April, Mayers was arrested over the incident after being detained at Los Angeles International Airport. It was claimed at the time that he’d been under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), with the shooting said to have happened near Vista Del Mar and Selma Ave at around 10:20pm on November 6.
Ephron had not been named as Mayers’ alleged shooting victim until last Wednesday (August 10) when the rapper was accused of having lured Ephron to an “obscure” location in Hollywood “to discuss a disagreement between the two of them”, where “unbeknownst to Mr. Ephron, A$AP Rocky was not just planning for a conversation and came armed with a semi-automatic handgun”.
It was alleged that when Ephron and Mayers met, they had a conversation “whereby without provocation, warning, or any justification, A$AP Rocky produced the handgun and intentionally fired multiple shots at Mr. Ephron”.
The incident was said to be in eyeshot of nearby surveillance cameras, and resulted in Ephron suffering minor injuries to his left hand.
If convicted as charged, Mayers could face up to nine years in prison.