Shooter responsible for stealing Lady Gaga's bulldogs pleads guilty to attempted murder

WARNING: This article includes accounts of violence and armed assault and may be distressing for some readers.

James Howard Jackson, the man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker before stealing her bulldogs, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison after pleading no contest to one count of attempted murder.

Jackson – along with two accomplices – had stolen Gaga’s dogs in a February 2021 violent robbery in Los Agneles, which saw the pop star’s dog walker Ryan Fischer shot in the chest in the process, according to Guardian reporting.

It comes months after Jackson was mistakenly released from prison “due to a clerical error” in April, leading a hunt to be launched for him by US marshals. He was eventually found in August and returned to custody.

On his Instagram, Fischer posted his impact statement that he gave to the court. It read: “It’s hard to believe that it’s nearing two years since I was taking Asia, Koji, and Gustav out for an evening stroll when I – in an instant – I suddenly found myself fighting with everything I had to protect those dogs from being stolen.

“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,” he continued.

“Sometimes it feels like all that happened to someone else, and other times it feels like I never left that sidewalk. A part of me is still desperately trying to save those dogs knowing you were going to shoot me.”

Fischer recounted the episode in an interview with Rolling Stone, where he said that he was taking Gaga’s three dogs – Miss Asia, Koji and Gustav – for a walk in the evening, when two armed men jumped out of a car and grabbed the dogs’ leashes, shouting: “Give it up!”

He attempted to fight off the men with a champagne bottle, which is when it is said that he was shot with a handgun by Jackson, who then took off with Koji and Gustav.

Fischer suffered a punctured lung, and reportedly could be heard shouting on a nearby doorbell camera recording: “Oh my God! I’ve been shot!” and “I’m bleeding out from my chest”.

At the time, Gaga offered a $500,000 reward for returning her bulldogs. A woman later returned them to a police station, who reportedly has been arrested since.

Isaac Muk is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow him on Twitter