ST. LOUIS — In recent weeks, people have taken to the streets to protests police brutality despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
For one St. Louis woman, she wants to join the protests, but fears for her health because of an injury she sustained at the hands of a police officer.
"I'm doing OK, but I'm pretty scared," Ashley Hall said.
Hall said the pandemic has made this a frightening time. She is immuno-compromised having lost her spleen after getting shot by police.
It was April of last year when Ladue police showed up and confronted Hall at the Schnucks in Ladue Crossing.
Hall said she was hurt after an altercation with a Schnucks employee and then tried to leave when she wasn't under arrest. That's when 13-year Ladue Police veteran Julia Crews says she meant to use her Taser but accidentally pulled her gun and shot the unarmed Hall.
It's a day Hall says she keeps re-living.
"It's a feeling that I don't want to see again but I have to re-live it and it's brand new," she said. "At that time, what went through my mind is that my life is leaving me."
Hall, who was suspected but never charged with shoplifting, said she was buying balloons for her mom. Prosecutors charged officer Crews with second-degree assault and she resigned from the force.
"The Ladue Police has not apologized," Hall said. "They were not sympathetic and I feel like they should be."
Hall is suing the former officer, the Ladue Police Chief and the city. She and her attorney believe use of force policies need to change.
"You should hold officers accountable for their actions when they're negligent, reckless and they go beyond just doing their job," attorney William Holland said.
Hall said she feels lucky because unlike George Floyd, she survived. If not for her compromised health, she tells me that she'd be in the streets protesting against police brutality.
"We are supposed to reach out to them for help and we're dying," she said.
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