Los Angeles police are on the hunt for a man accused of shooting Lady Gaga’s dogwalker and stealing two of her French bulldogs, after he was mistakenly released from jail.
James Howard Jackson, 19, had his charges dismissed, according to booking records, leading to his release Wednesday afternoon.
Jackson’s charges were dismissed correctly, but they were meant to be replaced with a superseding grand jury indictment, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said via NBC News.
Several sources spoke to NBC News and clarified that the court records for the superseding indictment were not updated, leading to the mistaken release.
ABC 7 News reported that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is looking for Jackson.
Jackson is one of three men who were charged last year with the attempted murder of Lady Gaga’s dog walker Ryan Fischer, along with conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree robbery for the abduction of two of her bulldogs. Jackson is the one accused of shooting Fischer.
Video footage from a nearby doorbell camera showed Fischer walking three of Lady Gaga’s dogs — Asia, Koji, and Gustav — when two men jumped out of a white sedan that pulled up beside him. They fought with Fischer before one pulled out a gun and fired at the dog walker. They then took off with Koji and Gustav.
Fischer was rushed to hospital. He has since recovered.
Apparently, the robbers didn’t know that the dogs belonged to Lady Gaga, and were just looking to steal French bulldogs since they are a designer breed that fetch a high price, Los Angeles police said.
After the robbery, Lady Gaga offered a $500,000 reward for information about the dogs’ abduction. The reward was offered with “no questions asked.”
At the time, Lady Gaga was filming Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci in Rome.
Her dogs were returned two days later by an unnamed woman who initially appeared to be “uninvolved and unassociated” with the crime. It was later found that the woman was in a relationship with the father of one of the suspects, the LAPD said.
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