Jillian Lauren, the bestselling author and wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, made her first court appearance Wednesday in the strange case of the officer-involved LAPD shooting that left her wounded outside her Los Angeles home on April
Lauren, 51, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly firing in the direction of officers first, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney had not filed any charges by the time of her morning appearance, so a judge ordered Lauren to return on May 13. Lauren declined to comment as she left the Clara Shortridge Foltz criminal courthouse in downtown L.A. with her lawyer, Georgina Wakefield, and several supporters.
“The matter remains under investigation. A case has not been formally presented to the District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration. Ms. Shriner remains out of custody on bond. A formal case presentation is anticipated within the next week. Our office will make a filing decision shortly thereafter,” DA spokesperson Greg Risling tells Rolling Stone.
According to the LAPD, Lauren racked her gun and fired it during a standoff with police officers who were in a neighboring yard conducting a search for hit-and-run suspects who had fled the scene of a nearby traffic collision around 3:55 p.m. on April 8. Body-worn camera footage and home surveillance video released by the LAPD last week shows the chaotic scene that led up to the exchange of gunfire.
In the nearly 22-minute compilation of videos, multiple officers are heard repeatedly yelling at a woman, identified by the LAPD as Lauren, instructing her to drop her gun. The officers were standing behind a fence, so the woman was not visible at the height of the chest-level video. Toward the end of the exchange, one officer identifies himself as “police” while another shouts that he’s with the California Highway Patrol. It’s not clear if any portion of the officers’ uniforms was visible to the woman over the fence.
A separate video from Lauren’s home surveillance system gave a different perspective. It shows her exiting her house holding a black handgun and walking around the perimeter, looking high and low. The video appears to show her manipulating and firing the gun, but it’s recorded from a distance and has no sound. After what appears to be a slight recoil, Lauren walks away, looking relatively calm. According to the police body-worn footage, as soon as an officer warned, “Oh, she racked it,” police opened fire, unloading more than a half-dozen, ear-splitting shots. But in her home surveillance video, Lauren does not appear to react to multiple shots or exhibit any injury in the seconds after she allegedly fired.
About an hour after the shooting, Lauren exited her home and was arrested without incident, police said. She was taken to a hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound on her arm, they said. She was later booked in absentia on suspicion of attempted murder and released on $1 million bail.
The LAPD presentation of the case, posted on YouTube, also included multiple 911 calls related to the incident. One was from someone inside Lauren’s home after the shooting. The individual tells the operator that Lauren was shot by one of the suspects of the manhunt. Lauren is heard talking in the background, explaining what happened. “I had my gun, and he said, ‘Put down that gun. Put down that gun.’ I said, ‘Put down your fucking gun.’ And then he shot me,” Lauren says. “There are three men out at the other side of this fence here.”
According to the LAPD, investigators recovered a 9mm Glock handgun and a spent shell casing from Lauren’s residence. They said LAPD responded to the call in L.A.’s Eagle Rock neighborhood at the request of the California Highway Patrol. Officials said officers entered a residential property after a resident reported one of the suspects jumping from one yard to another.
“While in the rear yard of [one] residence, the officers saw a woman in an adjacent rear yard, armed with a handgun,” LAPD Commander Alex Chogyoji said in the case overview video released Friday. He referred to Lauren by her married name, Shriner, though she is known professionally by Lauren.
“The officers gave Shriner repeated verbal commands to drop the handgun, however, she did not comply,” Chogyoji said. “Moments later, Shriner racked the handgun, pointed it at the officers and fired, resulting in an officer involved shooting.”
Lauren and Shriner have not commented publicly on the incident. Lauren released her first memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, in 2010, and her second, Everything You Ever Wanted, in May 2015. Both books are New York Times bestsellers.
Weezer, meanwhile, performed at Coachella Weekend One as planned, despite the incident.
