Jillian Shriner, a true crime author and the wife of Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges stemming from a chaotic series of events in Eagle Rock that ended up with her hospitalization after she was shot by police in April.
She pleaded not guilty to discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and assault with a semiautomatic firearm. She is due back in court on June 18. Both charges are felonies and would result in prison time if she were convicted, according to the felony complaint.
Shriner’s charges come after a wild sequence of events that began at around 3 p.m. on April 8, when police were chasing a group of hit-and-run suspects who had fled from the nearby 134 Freeway after a collision. As they canvassed the neighborhood, officers were directed to the 5300 block of Waldo Place, where Shriner’s home is located.
“As the officers were in the rear yard of that residence, they observed a female … in the yard of a neighboring residence armed with a handgun,” said a release from Los Angeles police at the time.
That woman was later identified as Shriner.
Police said that despite directing her to drop the gun several times, she instead pointed the gun in their direction, which led them to open fire. She was struck in the shoulder by gunfire and hospitalized before she was subsequently arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Body camera footage released by officers a few weeks after the shooting showed the moments that they demanded Shriner to drop the weapon.
“Drop the gun, you are going to get shot,” they can be heard shouting.
After the shooting, she told police that she was defending her home from the suspects running through her neighborhood.
She first appeared in court on April 30, where the Los Angeles County District Attorney revealed that they were still investigating the incident and that no case had yet been presented.
Shriner remains out of jail after posting $1 million bail.
