Rihanna's team emphasizes that she and her children were safely inside the home during the incident, and law enforcement responded quickly to protect the family. The focus remains on the singer's security and recovery from this terrifying ordeal.
Sources close to the case say Jed Valdez Sangalang was blindsided by the shooting and had no idea Ivanna Ortiz had fixated on Rihanna to this degree. The fact that he learned about the attack from news agencies calling HIM for comment? That's cold. Now he's fighting for full custody of their child.
Court documents show an email dated January 26, 2026 where Ortiz wrote: 'I need you to renounce Rihanna and confess that I'm better than her. Let it be done.' Ortiz has been charged with attempted murder and assault. She was previously placed on a psychiatric hold in Florida.
This isn't some random attack β weeks of buildup, a bizarre demand to choose between an ex and Rihanna, and now two kids were inside that house. The psychiatric history in Florida is going to be the key detail everyone digs into next.
The woman accused of opening fire on Rihanna's home earlier this week had been fixated on the singer for weeks β and her own estranged husband was right in the middle of it. New court documents obtained by TMZ reveal Ivanna Ortiz sent her ex-husband Jed Valdez Sangalang a chilling email on January 26 demanding he "renounce Rihanna" and confess that Ortiz was "better than her."
The message read, "I need you to renounce Rihanna and confess that I'm better than her. Let it be done. You gotta let me know so that door can be closed." That's not the ravings of someone having a bad day β that's someone who had been building toward something terrible for weeks. Sangalang attached the email to court filings as he fights for full custody of their minor child in the wake of Sunday's shooting at Rihanna's Los Angeles-area home.
Sangalang told the court he didn't learn about the shooting until Monday β after receiving calls and emails from news agencies asking if he had any information about Ortiz. Yes, you read that right: he found out his estranged wife allegedly shot up a global superstar's house from journalists, not police. He tried to shield their child from the news, but another student at school spilled it to the kid, forcing him into an impossible conversation about what their mother allegedly did.
Rihanna and her children were home at the time of the shooting, though A$AP Rocky was reportedly absent. Ortiz has been charged with attempted murder and assault for allegedly firing multiple rounds at the residence. Here's the detail that's going to raise even more questions: sources confirm Ortiz was previously placed on a psychiatric hold in Florida. The timeline between that hold, the January email, and Sunday's attack is exactly what investigators β and the public β are going to demand answers about.
Sangalang is asking the court for full custody and sole decision-making authority over their child. Given what we now know about Ortiz's state of mind and her bizarre obsession with being "better than" Rihanna, it's not hard to see why.
