Lady Gaga's Dognapping and Shooting Incident Reportedly Part of a Gang Initiation

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Image via Getty/Neilson Barnard

It appears that the dognapping of Lady Gaga’s two French bulldogs and shooting of her dogwalker might have been no regular incident.

According to TMZ, a source told the outlet that cops believe the incident may have been part of a gang initiation. Similar crimes have reportedly taken place around the Los Angeles area and could have been the M.O. in Gaga’s case.

The woman who returned the dogs back to the singer also reportedly hasn’t yet gotten her $500,000 reward, with authorities telling Gaga to hold off until they make sure the woman wasn’t part of the theft. The police apparently don’t think that woman was involved, but they’re still looking into it. Gaga is ready to pay the woman once she’s cleared.

TMZ writes that footage of the incident leans into the gang initiation theory, due to the fact that the thieves could have easily taken off with the dogs without shooting Ryan Fischer, the dogwalker, in the chest. Fischer had been shot multiple times and was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

The dognappers had gotten away with stealing Koji and Gustav, while Gaga’s third dog escaped. Days after the incident, a woman handed the dogs over to officers at an LAPD station, saying she found the dogs and wanted to bring them in.

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