Pop star Rihanna, her partner A$AP Rocky, their three children and the singer’s mother were at home when a woman, now charged with attempted murder, allegedly opened fire at the property, prosecutors said Tuesday.
No one was injured in the incident.
Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 35, of Orlando, Florida, has been charged with attempting to kill Rihanna, along with 10 counts of assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm and three counts of shooting at an inhabited vehicle or dwelling, authorities said.
The Sunday afternoon shooting occurred at a Beverly Hills-area property where Rihanna and A$AP Rocky were together in a trailer at the time, while other family members and staff were inside the house, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside a court hearing.
Inside the courtroom, Ortiz’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Jamarcus Bradford, initially entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf but later withdrew it to postpone the arraignment until March 25. The court ordered Ortiz to be held on USD 1.8 million bail.
Bradford declined to comment to reporters outside court.
If convicted on all charges, Ortiz could face life in prison. All 14 counts against her are felonies. Prosecutors said the three counts of firing at a dwelling relate to Rihanna’s house, her trailer and a neighbouring house.
The 10 assault counts relate to Rihanna and family members, two staffers and two people in the neighbouring house.
“LA based celebrities should not be additionally worried because of this,” Hochman said, “in large part because of the response of the police.”
He praised officers for arresting Ortiz soon after the shooting several kilometres away in the suburb of Sherman Oaks.
Judge Theresa McGonigle issued a protective order directing Ortiz to stay away from Robin Fenty and Rakim Mayers — the legal names of Rihanna and A$AP Rocky — and their home. The judge also barred Ortiz from possessing firearms or ammunition along with several other conditions.
Public records show Ortiz’s most recent address in Orlando and indicate she has been a licensed speech pathologist for more than a decade.
Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and declined to discuss a possible motive or any connection between Ortiz and the singer.
In 2018, a man was accused of breaking into another home belonging to Rihanna in the Hollywood Hills and spending about 12 hours there. He later pleaded no contest to felony counts of stalking and vandalism and a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest and was sentenced to probation in 2019.
A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and launched the cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty in 2017. She and A$AP Rocky announced the birth of their third child, a girl named Rocki Irish Mayers, in September.
