Police shoot bestselling author and wife of Weezer bassist, saying she pointed gun at officers

A bestselling author was shot by police and accused of attempted murder after, authorities said, she pointed a gun at officers who were searching for hit-and-run suspects in a residential Los Angeles neighborhood. 

Authorities shot Jillian Lauren Shriner, 51, Tuesday afternoon after they repeatedly told her to drop the handgun, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release. Shriner is the wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner.

Shriner fled into her home and was later taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the police department said. She was booked while hospitalized.

Neither Shriner nor her manager responded to requests for comment Wednesday night, and a representative for Weezer did not respond to a request for comment.

Police said that Shriner was not involved in the hit-and-run incident and that the shooting is being investigated by the police department’s Force Investigation Division.

Detective Meghan Aguilar said at a news conference Wednesday night that it was not clear from body-worn police video what happened in the moments before the shooting or whether Shriner fired at officers.

“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 said.

Aguilar said that police body-worn police camera had not provided “a clear view of what she did with that firearm” and that it was “not clear if she fired at officers or not.”

Police are set to review multiple videos and seek access to any security camera video from the area.

Shriner is a journalist and the author of several books, including “Behold the Monster: Confronting America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer.”

The police department said officers encountered Shriner in the backyard of her home in Eagle Rock, north of downtown Los Angeles, on Tuesday afternoon after the California Highway Patrol requested help finding three hit-and-run suspects alleged to have been involved in a crash on a nearby freeway.

The suspects fled their vehicle and ran into the neighborhood, the department said.

When Los Angeles police officers were directed to the backyard of a home where one of the suspects was seen, they saw Shriner — armed with a handgun — in the backyard of a neighboring home, the police department said.

After Shriner was shot and hospitalized, authorities found a 9 mm handgun in her home, it said.

One of the hit-and-run suspects was found, cited and released, the police department said. Two others were not located.