LADUE, Mo. – A woman was shot by police in the parking lot of the Ladue Crossing Shopping Center on April 23. She remains hospitalized.
Police believe the shooting was in connection to a shoplifting incident at the Schnucks store in the plaza.
A county police spokesman said Ladue police were called to the plaza for a shoplifting case that might have included a physical confrontation.
A Schnucks spokesperson said two women were pushing grocery carts containing items they had not paid for toward the front door. A Schnucks employee tried to stop the women. One took off. The other was still inside the store. She grabbed some of the items and ran out of the store.
She fell in the parking lot. The woman had also been carrying balloons, which she did pay for. Another Schnucks employee, who was outside, tried to help the woman. The woman struck the employee and ran away.
Soon after, the Ladue police arrived on scene and tried to arrest the woman.
The woman told the officer that she was injured in the incident, so the officer called for an ambulance.
In the time between calling the ambulance and the ambulance arriving, the officer tried to arrest the woman. The woman resisted, and a struggle ensued between the two. The woman was eventually shot by in the torso by the police officer.
Investigators are still working to talk to the people involved and do not know what happened right before the shooting, a spokesperson said.
The officer is a 37-year-old woman who has been a police officer for 13 years.
On Friday, detectives were trying to identify and locate a man who may have had information in reference to the on-going investigation.
The man went to the Ladue Police Department that night and after speaking with investigators, he was released from custody and hasn’t been charged with any crime.
Saturday, police said the woman who was shot by police was accompanied by the man and another woman.
They are now looking for the other woman in the photo below. Officers believe she has pertinent information in reference to the investigation.
Anyone with information about the woman's identity is asked to contact the lead investigator at 314-615-8634.
Police said this is the first known officer-involved shooting in Ladue.