It’s been a few days now, but we’re still in complete shock about the officer-involved shooting that occurred on Tuesday afternoon in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Eagle Rock.
As we’ve been reporting, LAPD officers came to the area in search of three suspects who fled a hit-and-run car crash on a nearby highway. What we know is they came across a woman named Jillian Lauren-Shriner in the yard of her home. Jillian is an author — but perhaps better known as the wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner. Which makes it all the more insane that officers shot her!
So what happened? To hear the LAPD tell it, Jillian was outside brandishing a handgun when officers arrived at her home in their pursuit of the hit-and-run suspects. They told her to drop the gun “numerous times,” an LAPD release later claimed — orders which Jillian allegedly refused. So, cops shot her in the shoulder. Thankfully, the injuries have been described as non-life-threatening. Less thankfully, though, Jillian was later booked on an attempted murder charge. Attempted murder?? For not dropping her gun?
Well, the LAPD’s story has evolved a bit. On Friday, department spokesperson Jennifer Forkish claimed in a statement to The LA Times that Jillian opened fire on the cops first. THEN they shot her, and she retreated into her home. Huh. Why would she do that? They weren’t even coming for her, why would she shoot at LAPD officers? That’s a surefire way to commit suicide by cop. It makes less and less sense the more we hear…
Only now, a new witness statement seems to have COMPLETELY flipped this story on its head! Buckle up, y’all, because this s**t is about to get even crazier…
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On Thursday night, the New York Post interviewed a neighbor who was on scene when the incident occurred. Per that eyewitness, a stranger in a “wife beater” (also known as a tank top) hopped a fence and ran into Jillian’s yard. This person was, as near as anyone could tell, apparently one of the suspects cops were searching for following the hit-and-run.
The witness matter-of-factly told the outlet that was the reason Jillian had armed herself in the first place:
“It’s not like she didn’t have any reason to have a gun. The guy was there. … She’s home with her two kids.”
Makes sense, right? If she’s in her own home, and wants to protect her own family, then we get why she might step outside with a gun. Just being a momma grizzly. It’s not everyone’s style, but we imagine most parents would understand.
Innerestingly, the neighbor says Jillian remained calm and reasonable. They maintain when she saw the stranger, she told him to give up because the cops were gonna be there soon:
“She basically admonished him and said ‘They’re gonna catch you.'”
But that’s when the s**t hit the fan — and the bullet hit Jillian. This is a huge departure from the LAPD version of events. This neighbor says that without warning, bullets started flying from officer guns:
“I hear about six gunshots in quick succession. It went, ‘ba-da-da-da-da.’ There was just them firing upon her.”
Hold up. Wait a minute. Let’s backtrack here. This witness’ statement is TOTALLY different from the LAPD release about the shooting. As you may recall, the department has claimed that Jillian was ordered to “drop the handgun numerous times” before allegedly pointing it at officers — an action which forced them to open fire. Read the key sentences about that from the LAPD release itself (below):
“The officers ordered Shriner to drop the handgun numerous times; however, she refused. Shriner then pointed the handgun at the officers, and an Officer-Involved Shooting occurred.”
Pretty clear, right? Heck, read the whole damn police side of the story for yourself HERE. It does NOT jive with this witness’ claims! Cops say they gave “numerous” orders for Jillian to drop the gun.
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And when the Post asked this witness to put into context what they saw with their own two eyes versus what cops are claiming, the witness called BS on the LAPD story. Notably, the neighbor claimed Jillian could NOT have seen the cops enter her yard from where she was standing at the time:
“I don’t know how they’re claiming that she could have seen them that fast. If she had been able to see them and ascertain that they were who they said they were, I’m pretty sure she would have dropped the gun.”
He’s saying they saw her with the suspect and just opened fire. On an innocent bystander. Without a word of warning. Holy s**t.
And the witness continued:
“There’s just no reason for it. There’s no way that if a police officer — who you can see as a police officer who says to you to drop the gun — that you’re not going to.”
For real, tho…
This witness has a chilling theory about this whole situation, too.
When the Post asked the anonymous eyewitness if they thought that the LAPD knows the f**ked up majorly here, the witness answered in the affirmative:
“That is 100% I think what is happening, and they know it.”
That would explain why the LAPD updated their story to say she fired first, wouldn’t it? If the story wasn’t what happened in the first place, why not tell a better lie? One in which they didn’t shoot a woman just for holding a gun but only shot when SHE fired and gave them no choice? We’re not saying that’s what happened… but it would make sense, right?
And not only that, but the witness also claimed officers investigating the case in its immediate aftermath didn’t seem to give a single s**t about the actual criminals involved — ya know, the hit-and-run suspects — and were instead only concerned with whether the shooting had been captured on video:
“At one in the morning they were interviewing me. Nobody cared what the suspect looked like. They didn’t give a s**t about that. They said ‘do you have any video? Did you take video of the shooting? Do you have anything about that?’ I’m like, ‘do you care at all what the guy looks like or anything like that?'”
Sketchy. As. F**k.
Oh, and then there’s this: hours after the shooting, other neighbors found a $4,000 Gibson electric guitar dumped in a trash can nearby. The guitar wasn’t related to Weezer or anything. Instead, witnesses theorize the hit-and-run suspects dumped the ax, which locals believe was stolen, after fleeing the original accident. And the cops?? Yup. Didn’t care about that at all either. The witness told the media outlet that police weren’t interested in the slightest when told about the possibly stolen item. SO sketchy!!!
So, uh, what the f**k is going on here, Perezcious readers??
Jillian has already been through a lot, even before this ordeal. And if this witness’ story is legit, the LAPD has a lot of explaining to do. Just saying.
One last inneresting wrinkle here… Remember when we said Jillian was an author? Apparently she writes true crime books. So yeah. Something tells us if there is something not quite right here, this is NOT going to be the end of it. Thoughts???
To learn more about the impact of gun violence, visit https://www.apha.org/topics-and-issues/gun-violence.
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