The shooting of Lady Gaga's dog walker and the subsequent dognapping of her two French Bulldogs may have been part of a gang initiation.
© Matt Baron/ShutterstockLady Gaga
TMZ claimed that police are investigating the gang theory and have told the singer to hold off on paying a $500,000 reward to the woman who found and returned the dogs. The report is quick to point out that police don't believe that woman had any involvement in the dognapping, but they have yet to officially clear her.
"[Authorities] are trying to figure out if she had any involvement after the fact," TMZ said. "Again, they don't know she's involved, but they're investigating."
© Matt Baron/ShutterstockLady Gaga
The dognapping case gripped the entertainment world for several days.
On Feb. 24, Gaga's dog walker, Ryan Fischer, was shot in the chest while taking the pop star's three dogs for an evening stroll in Hollywood. Video of the incident shows two men get out a white car - believed to be a Nissan Sentra or Nissan Altima - after it suddenly pulled up to Ryan during the walk. During a brief skirmish in which he sought to protect the pooches, Ryan was shot by one of the men. As Ryan begged for help while bleeding profusely on the sidewalk, the thieves got away with two of the dogs. A third dog ran away but was later recovered.
Police have reportedly been looking into similar crimes in the Los Angeles area, as they believe Ryan's shooting might be part of a gang initiation and actually had little to do with the dogs.
Gaga, who praised Ryan as a "hero," quickly offered a six-figure reward for the safe return of the pooches. Two days after then horrific incident, the dogs, Koji and Gustav, were found tied to an alleyway pole just a few miles from where Ryan was shot.
The Grammy-winning singer is said to be happy to pay the reward to the woman who found the dogs so long as she's cleared by police.