Bestselling author Jillian Lauren Shriner, who is married to alt-rock band Weezer’s current bassist, posted a million-dollar bond on Thursday to secure her release from jail in Los Angeles following a Tuesday incident where she was shot after she pointed a pistol at LAPD officers investigating a crime in her neighborhood.
Shriner’s manager, Charlie Fusco, told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday afternoon that the author and journalist is “alive and well” following the shooting and her release from custody. Otherwise, she said, she has no comment at this point.
On Tuesday around 3:45 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers were in pursuit of three suspects in the city’s Eagle Rock neighborhood after a misdemeanor hit-and-run on the Ventura Freeway. Officials said the officers were working alongside the California Highway Patrol to set up a perimeter after the suspects entered a residential neighborhood near the 134 Freeway and Figueroa Street.
Officers were checking behind a residence for one of the suspects, they reported, when a woman was spotted armed with a handgun outside a neighboring residence; she was later identified as the 51-year-old author. She is named Lauren Shriner by the LAPD in all records and in a press release regarding the incident. Officers say that they commanded her to drop the gun multiple times but that she refused to obey their orders; at that point, the situation escalated.
“Shriner then pointed the handgun at the officers; at that point, an officer-involved shooting occurred,” the news release states.
After she was shot, Lauren fled back into her home. As helicopters from local news stations hovered above, Lauren and another woman inside her home then exited her residence and lay face-down on the sidewalk. After being handcuffed and then placed on a stretcher, paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department took Lauren to a local hospital to be treated for ‘non-life-threatening injuries.”
Shriner was not involved in the hit-and-run, and one of the three suspects in that pursuit was captured, police said. A 9-millimeter handgun was found inside her home, the LAPD said in its news release. While in the hospital, she was booked on suspicion of attempted murder charge.
LAPD Detective Meghan Aguilar said at a Wednesday night news conference that it was unclear from body-worn police video whether her gun was fired or what occurred in the moments immediately before the shooting.
“At that point, there were some commands given, multiple commands to drop the gun, drop the weapon — unfortunately, it did result in an officer-involved shooting,” she told reporters.
LA County jail records indicate that she has now posted a $1 million bond and has been released. There are no records of Lauren being arraigned before a judge in the L.A. courts as of Thursday afternoon.
Lauren’s bestselling memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, is an account of her experiences as a member of the Prince of Brunei’s harem; it also discusses her career as a sex worker and battles with substances. She then delved into true crime with Behold the Monster: Confronting America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer, which is about serial killer Samuel Little. In 2021, she appeared in a Starz docuseries that chronicles her complex relationship with Little.
Lauren’s husband Scott Shriner’s band Weezer, the still-truckin’ alternative rock favorite formed by Rivers Cuomo in the 1990s, who produced two beloved records — the self-titled “blue album” and Pinkerton — and several subsequent albums, are scheduled as a replacement act during the first weekend of the Coachella Arts and Music Festival in Indio, CA on Saturday.