LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Florida woman accused of firing gunshots at Rihanna’s home in Los Angeles was charged Tuesday with one count of attempted murder and other felony offenses including 10 counts of assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman said that the singing superstar, her partner A$AP Rocky, their three small children and her mother were all on the property at the time.
The district attorney’s office said Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, 35, was charged in the shooting Sunday afternoon outside the superstar’s gated home in the Beverly Hills area. No one was hurt.
Court records show Ortiz also was charged with 10 counts of assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm and three counts of shooting at an inhabited vehicle or dwelling. All 14 counts are felonies, and she was brought for a scheduled arraignment before Judge Theresa McGonigle on Tuesday afternoon in Superior Court of Los Angeles County.
Deputy Public Defender Jamarcus Bradford, Ortiz's attorney, at first entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf, but then withdrew it in favor of postponing arraignment until March 25. She was ordered held on $1.8 million bail. Ortiz wore blue jail clothes with her blond hair in braids and spoke to her lawyer through a glass divider.
The judge issued a protective order for Ortiz to stay away from Robin Fenty and Rakim Mayers –- the legal names of Rihanna and her partner A$AP Rocky –- and their home. McGonigle also said Ortiz is not allowed to possess any firearms or ammunition along with several other conditions.
Earlier Tuesday, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell told media gathered for a news conference on a different subject that 10 people were at Rihanna's home when shots were fired. He said investigators believe Ortiz drove to the area from Florida, but it's not clear when.
Public records show her most recent address was in Orlando and that she has been a licensed speech pathologist for more than a decade.
Ortiz was arrested Sunday afternoon after the shooting and a weapon was recovered, police said. They have not said whether she has any known connection to Rihanna.
Voicemails and other messages left by The Associated Press, including an email sent to the public defender's office, were not immediately answered Tuesday.
AP also sent emails seeking comment from Rihanna’s publicist and manager.
KABC-TV broadcast video that appeared to show five bullet holes in the home’s front gate. The news station obtained police dispatch audio that says 10 shots were fired.
In 2018, a man was accused of breaking into another home belonging to Rihanna in the Hollywood Hills and spending 12 hours there. The man pleaded no contest to felony counts of stalking and vandalism and a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest in 2019. He was sentenced to probation.
A nine-time Grammy Award winner, Rihanna has 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We Found Love,” “Work,” “Umbrella” and “Disturbia.” She founded the makeup 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.
Associated Press Writer Christopher Weber contributed.
FILE - Rihanna arrives at the premiere of "Smurfs" on Sunday, July 13, 2025, at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
The exterior of Rihanna's residence is shown Monday, March 9, 2026, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) — The bishop of a small Chaldean Catholic community in the San Diego area has resigned amid charges that he embezzled $270,000 from his parish, Pope Leo XIV announced Tuesday.
Bishop Emanuel Shaleta pleaded not guilty on Monday to 16 felony charges, including money laundering, during a hearing attended by many of his supporters. The hearing followed his arrest Thursday at San Diego International Airport as he was trying to leave the country, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.
Shaleta, 69, is accused of embezzling from the St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral in El Cajon, east of San Diego.
Last August, someone from Shaleta’s church provided a statement and documentation “showing potential embezzlement from the church,” the sheriff's office said in a news release.
The Vatican said in its daily bulletin Tuesday that Leo had accepted Shaleta’s resignation under the code of canon law for Eastern Rite churches, which allows for the pope to agree if a bishop asks to step down. It also said Iraqi Cardinal Louis Sako retired as patriarch of the global Chaldean Catholic Church, saying he wishes to pursue “prayer, writing and simple service.” It's unclear if his retirement is connected to Shaleta's case.
Leo actually accepted Shaleta's resignation in February, but it wasn't announced until this week, according to the Vatican embassy in Washington. The Holy See appears to have waited to announce the decision to avoid interfering with the police investigation.
Prosecutor Joel Madero said the allegations against Shaleta are connected to monthly rental payments of more than $30,000 from a tenant of the church’s social hall that allegedly were missing. He said there were discrepancies in church accounts and that Shaleta “provided completely unreasonable tales of where that money was going.”
The judge set bail at $125,000 and seized Shaleta's passport. Madero said Shaleta was a flight risk, but the bishop’s attorney said Thursday's flight had been planned for a while. Authorities didn't say where he was headed.
During a Feb. 22 Mass, Shaleta addressed allegations against him, saying he has never “abused any penny of the church money.”
“On the contrary, I have done my best to preserve and manage the donations of the church properly,” he said at the time.
Shaleta's attorney, Sharon Appelbaum, said she planned to show that the allegations were false. The priests of the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle released a statement expressing solidarity with Shaleta.
Shaleta could face 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges, the district attorney's office said. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 27.
On Tuesday, the El Cajon parish church's doors were closed and its parking lot was empty. Leo named Bishop Saad Hanna Sirop as a temporary administrator.
Shaleta was ordained a priest of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Detroit in 1984. He was named to the San Diego branch of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church in the U.S. in 2017.
The Chaldean Catholic Church represents more than a million Aramaic-speaking Christians who are primarily from Iraq. While its beliefs align with Roman Catholic doctrine, including the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, the church maintains its own distinct, ancient Eastern traditions and identity.
Sako, 76, said in a statement that he freely offered his resignation to Pope Leo XIV, who granted it, and that he was leaving “of my own will.” As the head of the global Chaldean Catholic Church, he occasionally clashed with Iraq’s political leaders.
The Chaldean Community Foundation estimates there are about 500,000 members in the U.S. with the largest concentration — about 187,000 — in the Detroit area, and the rest concentrated in California and Arizona.
Sako's retirement "will give a chance for new leadership to emerge, hopefully, a younger leader who brings new life into the community,” said the Rev. Mark Morozowich, who heads the Center for Ukrainian Church Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington.
The bishop, meanwhile, is the “spiritual father” of the diocese, and Shaleta's resignation is likely to cause turmoil beyond his Southern California parish.
“A bishop facing such serious allegations is a sad moment in the history of these wonderful Christians who are a small community that has historically suffered a lot under Iraqi occupation,” he said.
This story was corrected to reflect that Shaleta faces 16 felony charges, not 17, which the sheriff's office reported.
Weber and Bharath reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press reporters Nicole Winfield in Rome and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
FILE - Louis Sako, patriarch of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, April 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)
The St. Peter Chaldean Catholic Cathedral is seen Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in El Cajon, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Pope Leo XIV visits the parish complex of the Santa Maria della Presentazione on the outskirts of Rome, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV visits the parish complex of the Santa Maria della Presentazione on the outskirts of Rome, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The head of Vatican Security, Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti, center, follows Pope Leo XIV as he visits the parish complex of Santa Maria della Presentazione on the outskirts of Rome, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
