Suspect in Lady Gaga’s dog walker shooting mistakenly freed after ‘error,’ cops say
Charges against a man accused of shooting Lady Gaga’s dog have been dismissed, jail records show.
But according to media reports, the charges dismissed against James Howard Jackson and his release from a Los Angeles, California, jail was the result of a mix up.
Jackson, 19, was arrested in April 2021 along with four others in the Feb. 24, 2021, incident in Los Angeles. Jackson was the alleged shooter in the incident and is accused of shooting a man walking three French bulldogs that belonged to Gaga, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The dismissed charges against Jackson were supposed to be “replaced by a superseeding grand jury indictment” that was unsealed during a hearing on Wednesday, April 6, NBC LA reported.
A “clerical error” led Jackson to be released from custody on Wednesday, Rolling Stone reported. Records show he was released at 3:38 p.m. Pacific time.
Authorities are now searching for Jackson to bring him back into custody. Jackson had not been booked back into jail as of late Friday morning, and charges still appear as “dismissed,” records show.
He is scheduled to appear in court on June 21.
Jaylin Keyshawn White and Lafayette Shon Whaley, along with Jackson, are accused of attempted murder in the shooting of the dog walker, who has been identified as Ryan Fischer. Two others, Harold White and Jennifer McBride, were charged with accessory after the fact.
They also allegedly stole Gaga’s dogs, and the singer/actress offered a $500,000 reward for their safe return.
The dogs were returned two days after the incident by McBride, who said she found the dogs and was seeking a reward,according to the Associated Press. But police determined she was “in a relationship with the father of one of the suspects.”
Fischer said in an Instagram post he had “a very close call with death,” but later said in an interview with CBS News that Gaga had “helped so much.”
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Suspect in Lady Gaga’s dog walker shooting mistakenly freed after ‘error,’ cops say."