Violent Femme: Weezer Bassists Wife Shot, Arrested
The wife of Weezer’s bassist was shot by police less than 30 minutes from Beverly Hills where sources suggest is where she wanted to be.
The incident occurred while officers with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) were responding to a hit-and-run that took place on a highway that cuts through a residential area of Los Angeles between Pasadena and Glendale called Eagle Rock on April 8, 2025.
When the three suspects in the hit-and-run fled on foot, one climbed a highway embankment and ended up on a residential street. Police gave chase through the neighborhood, following the suspect into the backyard of a nearby home.
Enter Jillian Lauren Shriner, 51, a New York Times bestselling author and the wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner. She emerged from the home next door brandishing a loaded 9mm handgun instead of staying in the garage where she belongs.
Officers ordered her to drop the gun but she allegedly ignored multiple commands before deciding to aim her weapon at the officers. The officers fired on her, shooting her in the shoulder. She then ran back into the house. The shooting took place shortly just before 3:30 P.M.
About thirty minutes later, Lauren (along with her unidentified babysitter) emerged from the home with their hands up, and promptly surrendered.
According to CBS, police said that after the shooting, she told them she was trying to defend her home from the suspects they had chased into the neighborhood. CHP told CBS that none of its officers opened fire suggesting that she was shot by LAPD officers.
Law enforcement told TMZ that Lauren was taken to a hospital where she was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. She was later arrested in absentia for attempted murder, and is being held in lieu of $1 million bond.
Although it is unclear if she fired the weapon, the California Penal Code offers some suggestions based on the charges against her. Sections 664 and 187 provide a straightforward definition of attempted murder:
“The attempted unlawful killing of another person, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.”
According to the statute, to convict her of attempted murder a prosecutor has to be able to prove that:
She took a “direct step” toward killing someone, and
She specifically intended to kill that person
Section 417 defines the crime of brandishing a weapon. To prove that crime, a prosecutor must be able to establish that:
The defendant drew or exhibited a firearm or deadly weapon in the presence of someone else
The defendant did so in a rude, angry or threatening manner
OR the defendant used the firearm or weapon in a fight or quarrel
AND the defendant did not act in self defense
Lauren’s husband, Scott Shriner, who joined Weezer in 2001, is the band's longest serving bassist. The former US Marine also played in the backing band of Vanilla Ice. The couple has been married since 2005 and has two children, according to the LA Times.
Weezer is scheduled to perform at Coachella, a surprise last minute booking for the 2025 festival. Their set was announced a few days before the incident. It is unclear how this may impact their scheduled show.
Lauren is the author of bestselling true crime book Behold the Monster: Facing America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer, based on her interviews with serial killer Samuel Little.
Her book was used as the basis for a 2021 five-part documentary series, Confronting a Serial Killer, which premiered at South by Southwest before it appeared on the Starz cable channel.
Lauren is also the author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, an autobiographical novel of her experience in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, brother of the Sultan of Brunei, in the early 1990s. According to the book, she was paid about $300,000 for her service in the harem.
In a 2023 interview titled Behold The Monster: A Q&A with Jillian Lauren, Lauren told The Crime Vault that, “You don’t choose the story. The story finds you…”
She also said that she’s…
“…always been fascinated by criminal deviance. Helter Skelter, off my parents’ shelf was the gateway drug for me, and In Cold Blood sealed the deal. Stories about murder have built-in high stakes. We can’t turn away. I’ve encountered the perspective that true crime is exploitative by nature. I disagree. Violence isn’t monstrous, it’s all too human. As a reader and writer of true crime, I am able to explore the stories of those existing on the fringes of society and see up close both the failures and progress of the criminal justice system. It has been a harrowing ride, and one of great personal significance.”
Of the three suspects, only one was apprehended, identified by police as the driver of the car involved in the hit-and run crash. He was reportedly only wearing his underwear when he was arrested at around 4:20 P.M. According to police, he was attempting to pretend to be the local resident of a home in the area.
His plan was undone as he was seen by news helicopters pulling his threads as he ran away. Despite jumping in a pool and watering the plants in someone else’s backyard in an apparent attempt to blend into the neighborhood, according to KTLA, he was soon nearly naked, unraveled, lying on the floor in handcuffs.
He is expected to be charged with felony hit-and-run after he's released from the hospital for an undisclosed injury. There was no word on the condition of his sweater or if he had his hash pipe.