ACCUSED SHOOTER IN GAGA DOG THEFT MISTAKENLY FREED
LOS ANGELES » A gunman accused of shooting and seriously wounding Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stealing her two French bulldogs mistakenly was released from jail and is being sought, authorities said Friday.
James Howard Jackson, 19, was facing an attempted- murder charge when he was released from Los Angeles County jail on Wednesday because of a clerical error, the county sheriff’s department said in a statement.
The sheriff’s Major Crimes Bureau is Major Crimes Bureau is working to find him, the statement said.
Jackson is one of five people arrested in connection with the Feb. 24, 2021, attack in Hollywood. Prosecutors said Jackson and two other alleged gang members had driven around looking for expensive French bulldogs to steal then spotted, tailed and robbed Ryan Fischer as he walked Lady Gaga’s dogs near Sunset Boulevard.
During a violent struggle, Fischer was hit, choked and shot in the attack captured by the doorbell camera of a nearby home. He lost part of a lung.
The camera recorded the dog walker screaming, “Oh, my God! I’ve been shot!” and “Help me!” and “I’m bleeding out from my chest!”
“While I’m deeply concerned at the events that led to his release, I’m confident law enforcement will rectify the error,” Fischer said in a statement obtained by KABCTV. “I ask for Mr. Jackson to turn himself over to the authorities, so resolution to the crime committed against me runs its course, whatever the courts determine that outcome to be.”
The pop star’s dogs were returned two days later by a woman who claimed she had found them tied to a pole and asked about Lady Gaga’s offer of a $ 500,000 reward if the dogs were returned “no questions asked.” The singer was in Rome filming a movie.
The woman is charged with receiving stolen property, and the father of another suspect is charged with helping him avoid arrest.