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Weezer rock band member Scott Shriner's wife, Jillian Lauren, was involved in a shootout with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on April 8, 2025. Lauren is a writer, performer, adoption advocate, and former escort for Jefri Bolkiah, the Prince of Brunei.
According to the department's preliminary statement issued on April 9, 2025, the California Highway Patrol requested backup from the LAPD related to a hit-and-run case where three suspects were reported to have fled into the Eagle Rock residential neighborhood off the 134 Freeway around 3:25 pm local time.
Subsequently, officers established a perimeter and chased one of the suspects into the back of a residence. However, they came across Jillian Lauren holding a firearm in the next house's yard. When the cops asked her to put the weapon down, she allegedly declined and pointed it at the authorities.
Following this, the shootout occurred in which Jillian Lauren suffered non-life-threatening shoulder injuries. After being wounded, she reportedly fled inside the house but surrendered after 30 minutes, along with her babysitter, and was later treated at a local hospital. No officer was hurt in the altercation.
Scott Shriner's wife and nanny were arrested but later released from custody. She was later absentee booked for attempted murder, as per Billboard. A nine-millimeter handgun was seized from her house. Jillian's case is currently being investigated by the Force Investigation Division, as per the outlet.
She was not part of the original hit-and-run incident. One suspect has been apprehended, while the other two continue to remain at large, as per TMZ reports.
All you need to know about Jillian Lauren in the wake of her arrest
Author, feature dancer, and blogger Jillian Lauren Dreskin was born on August 16, 1973, in Livingston, a suburban neighborhood in New Jersey. She has been married to Scott Shriner since November 2005, two years before he joined Weezer. The couple has two adoptive children, Jovanni and Tariku.
At 18, Lauren moved to New York City, where she attended New York University's Tisch School of Arts before dropping out to work at a downtown theatre. Six months later, Jillian began stripping at a New York club and one day got the chance to audition for a Singapore-based billionaire businessman who was paying "pretty American girls" US$20,000 each to be full-time party escorts for two weeks abroad.
After being selected, she moved overseas for 18 months and spent time entertaining male guests at the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the former finance minister of Brunei.
Jillian Lauren recounted her experience during a January 2024 podcast appearance on What It Was Like with host Julian Morgans. She claimed to know early on that her job would be "some kind of prostitute."
"I was being invited by the younger brother of the richest man in the world, who was the Sultan of Brunei at the time. Prince was his youngest brother – the playboy brother of the family – and he got a little taste for American girls and ordered up a couple. I just happened to be one of them," she shared.
Jillian Lauren recalled lying to her parents and telling them she was off to Singapore to film a movie with Michael Douglas. She mentioned seeing huge billboards of the Sultan and his wives at the airport and being overwhelmed and scared to enter the country.
"That was my first real feeling of, 'You f**ked up'... They took everybody's passports. There wasn't freedom to use the phone. There wasn't freedom to come and go. It was a palace and it was a prison. You're under guard at all times," she added.
The now 51-year-old shared that she considered Prince Jefri, her "savior" and waited for him to pick her up to go out and "party." Her moment finally came after singing his favorite Malay songs, and she was soon seated next to a Filipino ex-television star named Fiona, who was the prince's favorite female aide.
Jillian Lauren also recalled being warned by the bodyguards and confessed to falling in love with Jefri because of the money and luxurious experiences.
"When I think about how unhappy he was, it touched me in some way," she shared on the podcast before adding that on a trip to Malaysia, the Prince loaned her out to his brother, the Sultan, reportedly for s*x.
Jillian Lauren admitted that she fell out of favor with the Prince after returning to the USA and, despite going back and making him laugh, couldn't win him back, as another escort had replaced her by then. She called Jefri a "narcissist" with a "cardinal sin," but still being "friends" with him as long as she could.
Lauren's April 2010 memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, further chronicles her time as a "guest" of the Prince of Brunei. In the book, she claimed being a "victim to Stockholm Syndrome," and feeling like a "Cinderella" despite knowing she was a "hooker."
The New York Times bestselling memoir, which has since been translated into fourteen languages, also has accounts of the Prince's lavish lifestyle with escorts and servants, where Jillian and other girls partied every night, went on shopping sprees, and competed for Jefri's attention.
Jillian Lauren mentioned she was one of six American girls, alongside others from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, and even fought to secure a place as the Prince's fourth wife. However, she soon regretted her decision and choices and realized she'd become "unstable" and "a little wild," so she chose to walk away.
"What happened to my dreams? What happened to my schooling? I was a person who really cared about something and wanted something and now I'm a person who I don't understand It felt very hard for me to care about things again," Lauren reflected in her memoir.
"If there is a choice between a monster and a playboy, always choose the monster. Monsters treat you better," Jillian added.
In the podcast, she recalled being sl*t-shamed for her book but learning to have "tough skin" and hold her head up as her experiences and truth shaped the person she was today.
According to her website, Jillian Lauren, who considers herself a true-crime expert, also confronted American serial killer Samuel Little, which was documented in her 2023 book Behold the Monster: Facing America's Most Prolific Serial Killer and in the 2021 five-part documentary Confronting a Serial Killer.
Weezer bassist Scott Shriner has not yet addressed his wife's recent legal trouble. He is expected to perform with his band at the 2025 Coachella on April 12, 2025.
