Months after a chaotic police shooting outside her Los Angeles home, Jillian Lauren-Shriner is speaking publicly for the first time — and describing a moment that detonated her life in seconds.
In an interview with Rolling Stone published Dec. 20, the estranged wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner said she believed she was acting in self-defense during an April manhunt that ended with her being shot by Los Angeles police.
“I was doing the best I knew to protect my family,” Lauren-Shriner said, describing the incident as an instinctive response fueled by fear. “My world fell to pieces around me in a heartbeat.”
Scott Shriner, of Weezer performs at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.
The shooting occurred April 8 in the Eagle Rock neighborhood, where police were searching for three suspects accused of fleeing a hit-and-run. According to authorities, Lauren-Shriner was not involved in that incident. But as officers canvassed the area, she was armed in a backyard and fired her weapon in the direction of police, leading officers to open fire.
LAPD said she repeatedly ignored commands to disarm. She was struck once in the shoulder, taken to a hospital, and later booked on an attempted murder charge before being released on a $1 million bond. That charge was later reduced to assault and negligent discharge of a firearm, and she was granted a mental health diversion program in lieu of jail time.
Lauren-Shriner, 52, told Rolling Stone the hours that followed were surreal. While in custody, she focused on memorizing graffiti inside her jail cell — a way to escape the shock and imagine the lives of others who had passed through the same space.
“It gave me a chance to get out of my head,” she said.
The shooting became a breaking point in her marriage to Scott Shriner, 60. Earlier this month, she filed for divorce after nearly two decades together, citing irreconcilable differences. The couple married in 2005 and share two sons, ages 13 and 17. Court filings show Lauren-Shriner is seeking joint custody, spousal support, attorney fees, and restoration of her maiden name.
She said the public reaction to the divorce cut especially deep.
“I was the one who served my husband,” she said. “But seeing it in headlines was really painful. Divorce is painful, I don’t care who you are.”
The separation followed an already brutal year. In March, Lauren-Shriner revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer and later underwent two surgeries, including a full hysterectomy. She told Rolling Stone that confronting the police shooting forced her to revisit unresolved trauma from earlier in her life.
“I had to go back and work on trauma from a long time ago to understand myself now,” she said, adding that she is trying to become her “best self” amid overlapping crises.
Known as a writer before the incident, Lauren-Shriner said she is reconsidering her initial vow not to turn the experience into a book.
“Books are what I do,” she said.
The shooting, the arrest, the health battles, and the collapse of a long marriage have left her navigating consequences that extend far beyond a single afternoon in April. What began as a neighborhood police search spiraled into gunfire, criminal charges, and a public reckoning that she says she is still trying to understand.
For now, Lauren-Shriner says she is focused on healing — and reclaiming her own narrative after a moment when everything spun out of her control.
