A$AP Rocky charged over shooting

A$AP Rocky attends Rihanna’s 4th Annual Diamond Ball at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Image: AFP/Angela Weiss

LOS ANGELES – American rapper A$AP Rocky was charged Monday over an alleged shooting in Hollywood last year.

The 33-year-old, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, faces two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said.

Mayers is alleged to have pointed the gun at a one-time friend during an argument in November.

In a later confrontation between the two, he is said to have drawn the weapon and fired it twice, leaving the former friend with what police described as “a minor injury.” Mayers has been ordered to appear in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday.

The “Praise the Lord (Da Shine)” artist was arrested over the incident at Los Angeles International Airport in April when he arrived on a private plane from Barbados.

United States media outlets reported that he had been on the island with his then-pregnant girlfriend Rihanna. The entertainment and fashion mogul behind the hits “Diamonds” and “Umbrella” gave birth to a boy on May 13 in Los Angeles.

In an interview with GQ magazine published in May 2021, Mayers called Rihanna the “love of my life” and “the One.”

New York-born Mayers was previously arrested in Stockholm in 2019 over a street brawl. He was held in Swedish custody for a more than a month, in an incident which drew global attention, and was handed a suspended sentence. JB

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