Jake E. Lee Says Shooting Prompted by Altercation With ‘A Couple of Thieves’
Jake E. Lee is recovering at home after being shot multiple times while walking his dog Coco in Las Vegas. Following his release from the intensive care unit at Sunrise Hospital, the guitarist detailed the events that led to the shooting, particularly a verbal altercation he engaged in with an unknown group of masked people outside of his neighbor’s home. Lee’s recollection suggests the attack could have been related to a robbery.
“Walking home from our walk, Coco and I crossed paths with a couple of thieves,” Lee wrote on Facebook. “Dressed darkly, hoodies pulled down their faces and masks covering their mouths. Standing in a neighbor’s driveway checking out his motorcycle. There was a verbal confrontation which ended with an agreement that I would walk one way and they would walk the opposite. That didn’t work out.”
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For the time being, that’s all the information that Lee is willing to share. “I’ll probably talk in more detail about it later but right now I can only comfortably do a little at a time,” said the musician best known as Ozzy Osbourne’s former guitarist and a current member of Red Dragon Cartel.
When the shooting occurred on Tuesday, a representative for Lee told Rolling Stone that comments would be limited as “the incident is under police investigation.” No arrests have been made since the time of the shooting. A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department confirmed that officers responded to a report of a shooting at around 2:42 a.m.
In a text exchange with former Guns N’ Roses and Sixx:A.M. guitarist D.J. Ashba the day after the shooting, Lee provided an update on his condition, writing: “Doing surprisingly well. I am one lucky motherfucker.”
Osbourne also commented on the incident, despite the stretch of time that has passed since his last encounter with Lee. “It’s been 37 years since I’ve seen Jake E. Lee, but that still doesn’t take away from the shock of hearing what happened to him today,” he shared in a statement to TMZ. “It’s just another senseless act of gun violence.”
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