Two weeks after Jillian Lauren – bestselling author and wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner – was shot and injured outside her Los Angeles home, the LAPD have released bodycam and security footage showing the chaotic moments that led to the incident.
A montage of bodycam videos shows officers standing behind a fence, shouting multiple times at a woman identified by the LAPD as Lauren, to drop her weapon. At the height of the chest-level video, the woman is not visible on the other side of the fence. Toward the end of the exchange, one officer identifies himself as “police” and another shouts that he’s with the California Highway Patrol.
Separate video footage from Lauren’s home surveillance system gives a different perspective, showing her holding a black handgun and walking around the perimeter of her house, looking high and low. The video is captured from a distance and is soundless, but it appears to show her racking and firing the gun. After what appears to be a slight recoil, Lauren walks away. According to the police bodycam footage, officers opened fire – unleashing more than half a dozen deafening shots – just moments after one officer warned, “Oh, she racked it.”
The LAPD released the edited, almost 22-minute video to their YouTube channel on Friday, presenting what they described as the current state of evidence in the high-profile case. They say the shooting occurred around 3:55 p.m. on April 8, when police were searching for several hit-and-run suspects believed to be hiding in nearby yards in Lauren’s Eagle Rock neighbourhood. The case remains under investigation.
Lauren was taken into custody about an hour later without further incident, according to police, and treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to her arm. She was booked in absentia on suspicion of attempted murder, granted release on bail and has a court date set for April 30, online booking records confirm.
“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 says in the video released on Friday. Though she is known professionally by Lauren, he refers to her by her married name, Shriner.
“The officers gave Shriner repeated verbal commands to drop the handgun, however, she did not comply. Moments later, Shriner racked the handgun, pointed it at the officers and fired, resulting in an officer-involved shooting,” Chogyoji says. He also says investigators recovered a 9mm Glock handgun and a spent shell casing from the residence.
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Multiple 911 calls related to the incident are also included in the YouTube video, with one appearing to be from someone who was inside the house with Lauren after she was shot. The individual can be heard telling the operator that Lauren was shot by someone amid a police manhunt, and Lauren is heard talking in the background explaining, “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. There are three men out at the other side of this fence here.”
Lauren did not respond to a request for comment on the video.
Lauren, 51, is a New York Times bestselling author known for Some Girls: My Life in a Harem and Everything You Ever Wanted. Despite the incident, Weezer went ahead with their Coachella Weekend One performance as scheduled, with Shriner appearing on stage.
