In 2019, a white officer shot a Black woman in the back with her firearm while responding to a robbery at a grocery store in Ladue, Missouri. The officer at the time was charged with second-degree assault, but it was dropped after mediation between the two women, KSDK reports.

Officer Julia Crews made a stop at a Schnucks grocery store when she encountered 33-year-old Ashley Fountain Hall during an alleged attempted robbery. Hall, a Black woman, had been accused of stealing alongside another woman.

Store employees made a citizen's arrest by apprehending the suspects in the store’s parking lot until police arrived.

After Crews, a white woman, arrived on the scene, she said it was her goal to use her Taser to subdue Hall. However, Crews incorrectly pulled out her firearm and shot Hall in the back. The officer would later resign after a 13-year career with the Laude police department, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

“It is with a heavy heart that I hereby officially resign my employment as a police officer,” her resignation letter stated.

Instead of pursuing the criminal case in court, Hall and Crews chose to reconcile through restorative justice mediation. Months after the shooting, Hall said she forgave the officer who shot her, causing injury to her organs.

Hall added that she could tell Crews regretted her actions that day inside of the grocery store.

Crews and Hall agreed to participate in a restorative justice mediation via video, according to KSDK. The purpose is to have a facilitator help the communication barriers between the offender and victim, creating a resolution amid traumatic discord.

"It was a miscommunication," Hall later said.

Hall eventually received a $2 million settlement from the city of Ladue for the injuries she sustained.

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