Assault charges were dropped against a former white suburban St. Louis police officer who shot a black shoplifter suspect. The ex-police officer and the victim engaged in mediation as they worked to resolve the conflict.
According to the Associated Press, the victim, Ashley Fountain Hall, requested charges against ex-police officer Julia Crews, 39, to be dropped, in a statement obtained from The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Monday. The process known as restorative justice mediation took place on November 5.
The shooting incident had taken place on April 23, 2019, when Crews worked as a police officer in the suburban area of Ladue, Missouri, when she responded to a call made from Schnucks grocery store, where Hall and another woman were accused of shoplifting food items without paying. Hall supposedly assaulted one of the grocery employees in the face; additional workers held Hall in the parking lot until the authorities arrived, AP reported.
While racial differences seem to be at the forefront when police officers and local citizens are involved, this case was nothing different. Crews, who is white, said she initially reached for her taser when trying to subdue the suspect, but Hall, who is black, was shot in the back with Crew’s firearm. The former police officer immediately resigned following the shooting.
According to the Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s office, both Crews and Hall agreed to a restorative justice mediation conducted through videoconference said Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s office. The sole purpose of restorative mediation is to encourage both parties to reach an agreement with the help of a facilitator, AP reported.
The volunteer facilitator was Seema Gajwani, chief of the Restorative Justice Program for District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine. Bell and Lisa Jones, his office’s manager of victim services, also participated.
“This was a unique opportunity where the defendant immediately realized she had made a terrible mistake in shooting the victim, and both the defendant and victim reached places where they could see a resolution for this incident outside of the criminal justice process,” Bell said in a news release.
Hall initially filed a lawsuit against former officer Crews, and the city of Ladue agreed to settle for $2 million in 2020. The suit said Hall tried to break away from police in fear prompted by the history of Black people who aren’t armed “being shot by white officers.” However, the city admitted no wrongdoing in the confidential settlement, AP reported.
