A$AP Rocky has been ordered to return to court for a hearing to determine if he will stand trial for allegedly shooting former friend and rapper A$AP Relli in 2021.
The 34-year-old pleaded not guilty last August to two charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm stemming from the incident, and faces up to four years in prison on each count if convicted.
Rocky, real name Rakim Mayers, has been out on $550,000 bail but was not present Tuesday at a Downtown Los Angeles criminal court where Judge Kerry White scheduled a preliminary hearing to be held on June 5.
The charges arise from an altercation in Hollywood in November 2021 between Mayers and fellow rapper Terrell Ephron, a fellow member of the A$AP Mob rap group that started in Harlem in 2006.
Prosecutors say that during the argument, Mayers pointed a handgun at Ephron, then fired it twice toward him, injuring his hand.
Ephron has filed a civil assault and battery lawsuit in which his attorneys say that Mayers, ‘pulled out a handgun and purposefully pointed it in the direction of (Ephron) and fired multiple shots.’
Adding that Ephron was ‘in fear for his life,’ the suit says that he was ‘struck by bullet projectile/fragments’ causing him injuries that required medical attention.
Mayers – who welcomed his first child with Rihanna, 35, last May – was arrested in April last year at LAX airport as he stepped off a private plane from Barbados where he had been on vacation with the singer.
Cops held him for a few hours on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, then released him on $550,000 bail and sent the case to the LA District Attorney’s to prosecute.
It wasn’t till the following August that LA DA George Gascon decided that the charges were serious enough to press for felony status, rather than misdemeanor which would have meant only a maximum of one year jail time for each count.
‘Discharging a gun in a public place is a serious offense that could have ended with tragic consequences not only for the person targeted but also for innocent bystanders visiting Hollywood,’ said Gascon after announcing the charges.
‘My office conducted a thorough review not the evidence in this case and determined that the addition of a special firearm allegation was warranted.’
Mayers is also subject to a protective order demanding that he stays at least 100 years away from Ephron and doesn’t contact him.