Jillian Lauren, bestselling author and wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, has been granted additional time to review extensive video evidence related to a controversial shooting incident involving LAPD officers that left her wounded in her backyard.
Lauren appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday where her defence attorney, Georgina Wakefield, successfully requested a five-week postponement before setting a key hearing that will include the first live testimony in the case.
When Judge Susan J. DeWitt questioned the need for such a delay in what she described as a “relatively straightforward case,” Wakefield cited the “voluminous discovery” including significant video footage that required thorough review. The judge subsequently scheduled a follow-up hearing for July 22nd.
The 51-year-old author has pleaded not guilty to charges that she willfully fired at police officers who were shouting at her over a fence while searching for hit-and-run suspects allegedly hiding in neighbouring properties on 8th April. While no officers were struck, several returned fire during the chaotic encounter, resulting in Lauren sustaining a gunshot wound to her arm.
According to LAPD, Lauren racked and discharged her weapon during the alleged standoff with officers positioned on the opposite side of a fence. The department released nearly 22 minutes of body-worn camera footage on YouTube, capturing multiple officers repeatedly instructing a woman to drop her gun, though the woman herself remains unseen and unheard in the police recordings due to the fence height and helicopter noise overhead.
Separate home-surveillance footage released by LAPD shows Lauren exiting her house holding a black handgun and walking the perimeter. The distant, soundless video appears to show Lauren manipulating and firing the gun before calmly walking away, showing no immediate reaction to police gunfire or visible injuries.
In a 911 call released by authorities, Lauren can be heard 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.” She added, “There are three men out at the other side of this fence here.”
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Police report recovering a 9mm Glock handgun and a spent shell casing from Lauren’s residence. She was later booked on suspicion of attempted murder and released on $1 million bail, though prosecutors ultimately charged her with firing a gun with gross negligence and assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Neither Lauren nor Shriner have commented publicly on the incident. Lauren is known for her New York Times bestselling memoirs Some Girls: My Life in a Harem published in 2010 and Everything You Ever Wanted released in May 2015. Days after the incident, Shriner performed with Weezer at Coachella.
