Lady Gaga Offers $500,000 Reward After Dogs Are Stolen, Dog Walker Shot

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Lady Gaga's dog walker narrowly escaped death after 'severe one shot'
Author of the article:WENN - World Entertainment News Network
Publishing date:Sep 17, 2021 • 21 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation
In this file photo taken on January 27, 2019 Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for "A Star is Born" nominee Lady Gaga walks the red carpet at the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
In this file photo taken on January 27, 2019 Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for "A Star is Born" nominee Lady Gaga walks the red carpet at the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. PHOTO BY ROBYN BECK /AFP via Getty Images
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Lady Gaga’s dog walker has admitted his doctors “didn’t think (he) was going to survive” after he was shot by thieves when walking the pop star’s pets.

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Ryan Fischer was left fighting for his life in February when he was attacked while walking Gaga’s three French bulldogs – Miss Asia, Gustav and Koji.


His attackers stole Gustav and Koji while Miss Asia managed to flee from the scene, and Ryan was rushed to hospital for surgery.

And now, Ryan – who had to undergo surgery again when his lung collapsed – has said his doctors didn’t think he would survive.


He said in an upcoming interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings: “It was a severe one shot. And when I went back, because I had to go back to the hospital a second time to have the surgery because my lung had collapsed, the people in the ER who I’d seen that night told me that they didn’t think I was gonna survive that night. And I had felt that, because I was very awake during, while they were operating on me that night. But just to hear them say it, it was, it makes it more real.”

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The full interview is set to air on Friday, and Gayle has commented on the “trauma” Ryan has been dealing with since his attack.

She said: “He’s been through a lot, guys … He’s been through a lot of trauma and a lot of drama. He really is on a healing journey. We’ve been trying to talk to him for a very long time and he hasn’t been ready to talk, really, until now.”

Ryan previously spoke about his shooting earlier this month, when he said his only concern was making sure the dogs could be found even though he was “bleeding out” on the ground.

Speaking about his near-fatal attack, he said: “My mind started working really quickly. I really had to weigh my options – do I say who the dogs belong to? Because if I do, it adds more media attention.

“I was bleeding out and that was the thought that was going through my head. ‘What’s the best way to do this so the dogs can be found?’”
 

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Man accused of shooting Lady Gaga's dog walker mistakenly released from jail
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Publishing date:Apr 08, 2022 • 17 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation
US singer-songwriter Lady Gaga arrives for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
US singer-songwriter Lady Gaga arrives for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) PHOTO BY ANGELA WEISS/AFP /Getty Images
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The man who allegedly shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stole two of her pups is in the wind after he was released from prison by mistake.

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James Howard Jackson, 19, one of three men charged in the shooting and robbery of Ryan Fischer, was accidentally freed after a court appearance on Wednesday when records showed the charges against him were dropped, sources told NBC News.

He was released “due to a clerical error,” according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“The investigation is continuing and the LASD Major Crimes Bureau is actively working to get Mr. Jackson back in custody,” reads the statement, which describes Jackson’s release as “inadvertent.”

Jackson is accused of shooting Fischer on Feb. 24, 2021, while Fischer was walking Gaga’s three French bulldogs.


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He and two other suspects allegedly fled in a car with two of the dogs, Koji and Gustav.

Fischer suffered serious injuries after he was allegedly shot in the chest. He was in hospital for nearly a month.


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Jackson was arrested in April 2021 along with Jaylin White, 19, and Lafayette Whaley, 27. All three were charged with attempted murder, robbery and other offences, according to prosecutors.

Two others, Jennifer McBride and Harold White, were charged as accessories to the crime, officials said.


Shortly after the shooting, Gaga, 36, released a statement calling Fischer a “hero.”
 

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Lady Gaga dog walker shooting suspect hunted after mistaken jail release
James Howard Jackson was one of three people charged with attempted murder and robbery

Author of the article:Bang Showbiz
Bang Showbiz
Publishing date:Jul 19, 2022 • 20 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

A man who allegedly shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker is wanted by the United States Marshals Service after he was mistakenly released from jail.


James Howard Jackson was one of three people charged with attempted murder and robbery after allegedly shooting Ryan Discher and attempting to kidnap the ‘Edge of Glory’ singer’s three French bulldogs in February 2021, but he was let go from prison “due to a clerical error” in April.

After the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Major Crime Team asked for the US Marshals help to apprehend Jackson, they have offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, but warned he “should be considered armed and dangerous”.

Shortly after the 19-year-old was released from jail, Ryan appealed for him to turn himself back to authorities.

He said in a statement: “While I’m deeply concerned at the events that led to his release, I’m confident law enforcement will rectify the error.


“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. Thank you to everyone who is supporting me during this time.”

Jackson – whose full list of charges includes attempted murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, second-degree robbery, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and a felon carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle – is accused of shooting the dog walker with a .40-calibre handgun with him and two suspects allegedly fleeing the scene in a car with two dogs. The animals were returned to police two days later.

Ryan suffered a collapsed lung in the attack and admitted medics were initially unsure he’d survive.

He previously said: “The people in the ER, who I had seen that night, told me they didn’t think I was gonna survive that night.”

He also praised his famous boss for her support throughout his recovery.

He said: “She’s helped me so much. She’s been a friend for me and after I was attacked, my family was flown out and I had trauma therapists flown to me and I stayed at her house for months while friends comforted me and security was around me.”
 

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Woman convicted in dognapping case sues Lady Gaga over $500,000 reward

Jennifer McBride was convicted of one count of receiving stolen property and sentenced to two years of probation

Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Jonathan Edwards
Published Feb 28, 2023 • 4 minute read

Lady Gaga took to Twitter with a desperate plea on Feb. 26, 2021, less than 48 hours after robbers stole her two French bulldogs and shot the man who had been walking them.

“My beloved dogs Koji and Gustav were taken in Hollywood two nights ago. … I will pay $500,000 for their safe return,” she wrote.


“If you bought or found them unknowingly, the reward is the same,” she added.

Jennifer McBride returned the dogs about 80 minutes after the pop star’s tweet, bringing the two pooches to a Los Angeles Police Department station.


Two months later, she was arrested and charged in connection with the dognapping after police said she didn’t merely find the dogs but knew the father of one of the suspects. In December, she was convicted of one count of receiving stolen property and sentenced to two years of probation, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

But McBride says she should still be paid for returning the dogs. On Friday, she sued Lady Gaga in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing the singer, whose legal name is Stefani Germanotta, of breach of contract and fraud. McBride alleges that Germanotta made the half-million-dollar promise in bad faith and that the singer used the reward as bait to induce McBride to come forward and put herself on law enforcement’s radar.


“This case is quite simple. Lady Gaga made a reward offer. … She desperately wanted her dogs returned and my client took action to fulfill Lady Gaga’s wish,” lawyer K.T. Tran said in a statement to The Washington Post. “My client had absolutely no involvement in the theft of the dogs. She loves dogs and was glad to participate in their safe return. She is legally entitled to and deserves the reward.”

McBride further alleges in the lawsuit that the “representation that they would pay the reward money of $500,000.00 ‘no questions asked’ was also false.”

Tran did not respond when asked to cite a social media post, interview or quote in which Germanotta said she was offering the reward “no questions asked.”

A representative for Germanotta declined to comment on McBride’s allegations.

On Feb. 24, 2021, Ryan Fischer was walking Lady Gaga’s three Frenchies down a Hollywood street where three men drove a white sedan alongside him. Two of them got out and ambushed Fischer – whom Germanotta described as “forever a hero” – demanding he give them the dogs. When Fischer resisted, James Jackson shot him once with a .40-caliber handgun.

Jackson and his accomplices – Jaylin White and Lafayette Whaley – snatched two of the three dogs, hopped in the car and fled. The third dog, Asia, escaped and was later retrieved by Germanotta’s bodyguard. White and Whaley pleaded guilty to robbery in August and were given prison sentences of four years and six years, respectively, according to the district attorney’s office.

The three men did not know the dogs belonged to Lady Gaga, police have said.

Fischer suffered serious injuries. Those included a gunshot wound to the chest, which led doctors to remove a portion of his lungs. He described the attack in December when Jackson, the man who shot him, was convicted of attempted murder and inflicting great bodily injury, according to the district attorney’s office. Jackson was given a 21-year prison sentence.

“It’s hard to believe that it’s nearing 2 years since I was taking Asia, Koji, and Gustav out for an evening stroll when – in an instant – I suddenly found myself fighting with everything I had to protect those dogs from being stolen,” Fischer wrote in a statement he posted to Instagram. “But it wasn’t enough: I was beaten, strangled, shot and left to die bleeding out on a sidewalk and gasping for my life. And Koji and Gustav were gone.”


Germanotta was reportedly in Italy working on a film at the time.

The prosecutor who handled the dognapping and shooting case, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee, told The Post that the three robbers recruited McBride “to be the innocent lady who just happened to find the dogs.”

They set up a drop, which was captured on video, Hanisee said. As McBride paced up and down a street in L.A., someone in a Jeep drove up, tied the dogs to a streetlight and took off. McBride immediately retrieved them, she added.

Police used surveillance footage from nearby businesses to trace the Jeep to a car rental place and an associate of Harold White, Jaylin White’s father and McBride’s longtime friend, Hanisee said. After she retrieved them from the streetlight pole, McBride contacted Lady Gaga’s representatives, who instructed her to turn the dogs over to law enforcement at the nearest police station.

“It was clear everyone involved in the collection of the dogs has a connection back to Harold White,” Hanisee said.

McBride originally faced two criminal charges in connection with the dognapping, but in a plea deal, prosecutors dropped one count of being an accessory after the fact.

In her suit, McBride said Lady Gaga made a “unilateral contract” by offering the $500,000 reward when she was desperate to get her dogs back. McBride said she accepted the offer and “fully performed her obligation under that contract when she returned the dogs.”

Now, McBride said in her suit, she wants Lady Gaga to do the same.