\n\tIn her first interview since a bizarre incident earlier this year in which she was shot by LAPD police during a hit-and-run investigation after officials said she fired on one of their officers, author Jillian Lauren-Shriner has broken her silence on what she called an act of \u201cself-defense.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThe Some Girls: My Life in a<\/em> Harem<\/em> author and soon-to-be ex-wife of Weezer<\/a> bassist Scott Shriner spoke to Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em> about the April shoot-out that took place after police stormed her Los Angeles neighborhood in search of on-the-lam hit-and-run suspects and unexpectedly engaged in a showdown in Lauren\u2019s backyard. Police have claimed that Lauren fired at officers who were yelling over a fence at her, resulting in the officers returning fire and hitting her in the arm. <\/p>\n \n\tLauren-Shriner was charged with two felony counts<\/a> and later pled not guilty to charges of discharging a firearm with gross negligence and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, a downgrade from the more serious charges she faced when she was initially booked on suspicion of attempted murder<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tLauren-Shriner told RS<\/em> that she can\u2019t discuss certain aspects of the case for legal reasons, but with the case still pending she is currently enrolled in a two-year mental health diversion program that is expected to result in a full dismissal of her charges. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was doing the best I knew to protect my family,\u201d she told RS<\/em>. \u201c[The] impulse was self-defense.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tWhile Lauren-Shriner was unable to get into specifics of what happened that day, she said the aftermath of the shoot-out has thrown her life into chaos. \u201cMy world fell to pieces around me in a heartbeat,\u201d said Lauren-Shriner, who filed for divorce<\/a> from bassist Shriner after 20 years of marriage earlier this month citing \u201cirreconcilable differences.\u201d She told RS<\/em> that the couple, who share two adopted children, had been growing apart for years, with the police incident pushing their relationship to a \u201ccrisis\u201d point.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s like, you spend your whole life just getting an entire deck of cards in order. And just take them and throw them up in the air one day, and I\u2019m still waiting to see how they\u2019re gonna land,\u201d Lauren-Shriner said. Though her writing has sometimes chronicled her personal experience, the author said she initially thought it was unlikely she\u2019d turn this year\u2019s police encounter into a book.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt gave me a chance to get out of my head for those hours in the jail cell and imagine who else had been there,\u201d she said of her attempt to memorize the graffiti on the jail cell walls after the arrest. \u201cIn the throes of it, I was saying I will never do a book about this because I can\u2019t experience this again,\u201d she recalls. Now, she feels differently. \u201cBooks are what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAmong her books are the 2015 memoir, Everything You Ever Wanted<\/em> and 2010\u2019s Some Girls: My Life in a Harem<\/em>, which chronicles her time spent as a member of the Prince of Brunei\u2019s harem.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter her plea, the judge in the case deemed Lauren-Shriner eligible for a mental health diversion program, which also requires counseling and random drug\/alcohol testing. \u201cWhen the [mental health diversion] headlines came out, my joke was, \u2018I\u2019m not just a gun-toting criminal, now I\u2019m a crazy one,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cMy PTSD is a very real thing. I\u2019m a victim of sex trafficking and domestic violence. \u2026 When the headlines said \u2018Mental Health Diversion,\u2019 what I really thought was, \u2018OK, good. People are so scared to talk about this.\u2019 I\u2019m in a position where I can speak to it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThough she said the headlines about the couple\u2019s divorce are the ones that \u201creally hurt\u201d her, Lauren-Shriner remains proud of the life they built together. \u201cHe\u2019s still my best friend. We still have beautiful kids together and have always really supported each other in our various transformations,\u201d she said of her ex.<\/p>\n
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