Suspect in Shooting of Lady Gaga Dog Walker Mistakenly Released From Jail: Report
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One of the three men charged in connection with the shooting and robbery of Lady Gaga dog walker Ryan Fischer has accidentally released from a Los Angeles jail due to an administrative mistake. NBCLA reported that James Howard Jackson, 19, was freed on Wednesday afternoon (April 6) after a court appearance, with booking records revealing that he was sprung because the charges against him were seemingly dismissed.
But rather than having the charges tossed, Jackson — who is accused of being the person who fired the shots that seriously injured Fischer during the Feb. 2021 dognapping — was supposed to have faced a superseding grand jury indictment that was unsealed during Wednesday’s court proceeding that was to replace the initial counts.
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Several sources familiar with the court proceedings reportedly told NBCLA that the superseding case was erroneously not entered against alleged gunman Jackson, who was being held on more than $3 million bail before his release. The teenager was charged last year along with alleged accomplices Jaylin Keyshawn White, 19 and Lafayette Shon Whaley, 27, with one count each of attempted murder, second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in the shooting of Fischer, who described the harrowing incident in a transcript from a secret grand jury proceeding.
ABC 7 reported on Friday morning (April 8) that police were still looking for Jackson as of press time.
Fischer, who was shot in the chest during the scuffle, said that he was “confused at first” when the alleged dognappers jumped out of a car and demanded he hand over the singer’s three dogs: Asia, Gustav and Koji. In the testimony, Fischer said one of the alleged attackers threw him into a concrete embankment and began choking him before he hit the man with a bottle of champagne he’d just purchased before breaking free while trying to grab Koji back.
“The dog screamed at me, and I reached for him, and then the guy, the man with the gun shot me as I was reaching,” Fischer said according to the unsealed grand jury transcript. Fischer then added that he collapsed on the ground while the assailants took off with Gustav and Koji in a white Nissan Sentra.
Alleged gunman Jackson is also charged with one count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and being a felon carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle. Gaga was eventually reunited with the pooches, with authorities saying at the time of the arrests that they didn’t believe the suspects were specifically targeting Fischer because he was walking Gaga’s dogs, but rather was focused on the specific breed.
