The woman accused of opening fire on Rihanna’s Beverly Hills home appeared in a Florida court on April 21, 2026, where a judge issued sweeping restrictions on her contact with her child. The ruling granted the child’s father full custody and complete time-sharing authority, leaving the accused with no access to the child unless the father personally approves an exception. The court also placed a hold on the ongoing custody proceedings, ordering that the case remain paused until the criminal matter tied to the Los Angeles shooting is fully resolved.
The shooting took place on March 8, 2026, when the accused allegedly drove to Rihanna’s Los Angeles property, parked across the street, and fired between 10 and 20 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle at the home. Rihanna was inside at the time, along with her three young children, her mother, and members of her household staff. Bullets struck a security gate, an Airstream trailer on the property, and a wall in the nursery. Authorities arrested the suspect approximately 30 minutes after the shots were fired. She is currently being held on 1.875 million dollars bail after a request from her legal team to reduce it to 70,000 dollars was denied on the grounds that she posed a danger to the community.
A history of mental health concerns and prior legal issues
The Florida court’s custody ruling was not the first time a judge had raised concerns about the accused’s mental state. A separate custody dispute from April 2024, involving her former husband, resulted in a nearly identical outcome: full physical custody awarded to the father and a complete bar on the accused making any contact with the child by phone, video, text, email, or through a third party.
The accused was also reportedly held involuntarily under Florida mental health law in the period surrounding that earlier custody battle. Her former husband’s legal representation described her as manipulative, persuasive, and difficult for outsiders to read accurately. She disputed the circumstances of the hold, but the judge handling the April 2026 hearing cited ongoing mental health concerns in the ruling.
The accused had been arrested previously on a domestic violence charge, which placed her on probation at the time of the earlier custody proceedings. In that ruling, the judge cited concern that she might not return the child to the father if given access.
Online behavior preceding the attack
In the months before the March shooting, the accused had posted a series of videos and messages online directed at Rihanna. A post from January 2026 showed her rebuking what she described as the singer’s influence while holding a prayer journal, warning others to avoid falling under what she characterized as a negative spiritual force. Subsequent posts in February included false and defamatory medical claims about the singer. She had also directed online criticism at other public figures and filed an emergency petition attempting to cancel a concert by another artist.
Professional license under scrutiny
Beyond the custody and criminal proceedings, the accused’s professional standing is also in jeopardy. She holds a license to practice speech-language pathology in California, issued in 2016 and set to expire in June 2027. Following her arrest, a member of the licensing board urged prosecutors to include strict conditions in any bail arrangement and asked the court to prevent her from working with members of the public in a professional capacity if released from custody.
She now faces 14 felony counts including attempted murder, 10 counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, and three counts of shooting at an occupied dwelling. Rihanna was seen leaving the Los Angeles home by private aviation the day after the attack, traveling with security in a convoy of vehicles.
