Today’s case is about a celebrity gone wild – Jillian Lauren, also known as Jillian Shriner. Jillian is the wife of Weezer musician Scott Shriner. Jillian was recently involved in a bizarre incident involving LAPD and she was charged with attempted murder.
As some background into Jillian, she was born on August 16, 1973. She grew up in Livingston, New Jersey and graduated from Newark Academy. She moved to New York City where she briefly studied acting.
According to online reports, she is a writer, performer, adoption advocate and a former call girl for the Prince of Brunei. She wrote a book about that experience called ‘ Some Girls: My Life in a Harem.”
Jillian has also written a true crime book called Behold the Monster: Facing America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer about Samuel Little. He has been convicted of eight murders and he has confessed to committing 93 murders between 1970 and 2005.
Jillian married Scott Shriner on November 9, 2005. The couple have adopted two sons together. Their first son Tariku Moon was adopted from Ethiopia in 2009.
Jillian spoke about her early parenting experiences in an interview with MotherhoodLater.com:
I had a pretty wild pre-baby life, including drug addiction and my infamous years in the harem of the prince of Brunei (see my first memoir Some Girls: My Life in a Harem). On paper, I might not be considered the best candidate for motherhood. My husband Scott and I had a long and circuitous road to parenting, including the whole painful infertility thing. We eventually found the right path for us and adopted our son from Ethiopia.
In 2016, the couple adopted a second son, named Jovanni Sunshine. She wrote about that experience on her blog – JillianLauren.com.
Yesterday, the four of us drove out to Lancaster and stood holding hands under the fluorescent lights of the juvenile court. The kindly Santa Claus of a judge spoke a few magic words and in an instant the world got brighter, our breathing easier, the burden on our shoulders lighter…
Dearest friends, we are over the moon to finally introduce you to our son-legally. All signed and sealed. Jovanni Starshine. Isn’t he glorious?
We call him Jovi. Jovi Starshine.
Tariku picked his middle name and you have to meet him to know how wonderfully apropos it is. This kid sparkles with joy and sweetness and resilience and mischief and creativity and curiosity and music and dancing and delight.
“Look what we did,” I said to Scott on the ride home, somewhat astounded to be watching our children happily munching animal crackers, listening to their favorite songs, getting crumbs all over their good suits. We made a family. “Look what we did,” he agreed.
My heart is a balloon. Meet Jovi. He is perfect. We are perfect together. Now that I can legally show you his face, brace yourself to be barraged with roughly a bazilliontrillion pictures.
The family apparently have two dogs, named Peanut and Calvin.
The strange events started to unfold on Tuesday April 8, 2025.
That afternoon at around 3.25pm, California Highway Patrol requested backup following a misdemeanour hit and run. The incident had involved three cars. It is believed that three suspects fled on foot. They went into the residential neighborhood of Eagle Rock in Los Angeles. It seems like the scene was chaotic. There were helicopters searching.
LAPD officers went into the yard of a home where one of the suspects was seen.
It is alleged that Jillian came out of her own home, holding a handgun. She was seemingly unrelated to the hit and run incident, so it is unclear what she was doing.
Officers ordered her “to drop the handgun numerous times; however, she refused”, according to a LAPD press release.
She then pointed the handgun toward the officers, per the news release, and a shootout took place during which Jillian was struck by gunfire and retreated back into her residence.
There was some debate as to if Jillian actually fired her gun, but it seems like she did.
Lauren pointed her gun at officers and repeatedly ignored commands to drop her weapon, police said. Then, she opened fire, department spokesperson Jennifer Forkish said in a statement to The Times.
She eventually came out with ‘a babysitter’ and she surrendered.
Some news articles say the other woman was ‘her babysitter’ which had led to discussion. Was she the sitter for Jillian’s children, or had she been hired to care for Jillian?
According to her social media, Jillian had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had undergone major surgery so maybe the woman was helping her?
She was later taken into custody and brought to a local hospital, where she was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. It is believed that she was struck in the shoulder.
A nine millimeter handgun was recovered from her residence and she was absentee booked for attempted murder.
The Highway Patrol took the suspected hit-and-run driver into custody around 4:20 p.m, according to agency spokesperson Daniel Keene. He was found in a nearby backyard stripped down to his boxers. News reports suggest the other two suspects were not found at the time.
Jillian posted $1-million bail and was released from custody around 10 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 according to Los Angeles jail records. She is scheduled to appear in court on April 30.
In California, the attempted murder of a peace officer without premeditation is punishable by a five-, seven- or nine-year sentence. Use of a firearm can lead to an enhanced sentence.
Jillian’s husband Scott went on to perform with Weezer on the weekend after the incident at Coachella.
Two days before the performance, Scott was walking his dogs outside his Los Angeles home and told the NY Post of Jillian, “She’s alright, thank you for asking.”
“See you at Coachella!” he added.
SOURCE LIST –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jillian_Lauren
https://www.jillianlauren.com/post/grow-your-blog-community
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/weezer-scott-shriner-wife-jillian-lauren