A Ferguson, Missouri, police officer was seriously injured outside the city’s police station during protests marking the 10th anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown, a key moment in the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement, police said Saturday.
Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle said Officer Travis Brown was knocked to the ground Friday and suffered a severe brain injury.
“He is currently fighting for his life in an area hospital,” Doyle said.
Two other officers were also injured, one with a wounded ankle and the other with abrasions, and both were treated at the scene.
A team of officers made an arrest on suspicion of vandalism at a police station on Friday, where protesters had gathered to commemorate Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old killed by white officer Darren Wilson in 2014.
One of the suspects was charged Saturday with assault on a special victim, resisting arrest and criminal damage to property.
He was ordered held on $500,000 cash-only bail. It was unclear if he still has an attorney, as no information was immediately available in online court records.
Doyle said protesters had been peaceful for much of the night, and police allowed them to block the road in front of the station, stationing patrol cars on either side to protect them from being hit by cars.
Police also did not intervene when protesters began shaking the fence outside the station, but sent in arresting forces when protesters damaged part of the fence, he said.
Doyle said the suspect lunged at Travis Brown, knocking him backwards with his shoulder and an officer struck him in the head as he fell to the ground.
According to court documents, the suspect continued running and kicked two officers who were attempting to arrest him, leaving them with scratches and bruises.
Doyle said Travis Brown, who is Black, joined the department in January and previously worked for the St. Louis County Police Department.
He is part of a wave of Black officers hired by the police department since 2014. At the time, there were only three Black officers in the department, but now Black officers make up more than half of the force, Doyle said.
“He wanted to be a part of change,” Doyle said. “He wanted to make an impact in our community. He’s the type of officer we want in our community. And what happened? He got assaulted. I had to look his mother in the eye and tell her what happened to her son. I’ll never do that again. I promise you that.”
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, who stopped by the hospital beforehand to meet with the officers’ families, said other suspects also would be charged.
“I always say the hardest part of this job is when we can’t bring justice to a family who’s lost a loved one. And I have to change that. The hardest thing I’ve had to do is talk to and comfort a mother who doesn’t know if her child is doing well. And for what?”
The Rev. Daryl Gray, a prominent civil rights activist, urged the police chief to tread carefully and “not create an us-versus-them mentality.”
“All of our efforts and energy now need to be directed positively at the recovery of our officers, and then we need to have a fair and unbiased investigation to determine what the evidence is,” Gray added.
The arrest comes as the St. Louis Fire Department has placed an employee on administrative leave after making social media posts the department described as insensitive.
“We take this matter seriously and will not tolerate this type of behavior,” officials said. Written.
Police did not disclose the content of the post, but local media outlets reported that it read: “Happy ALIVE Day Darren Wilson!”
The death of Michael Brown has made Ferguson the focus of a national reckoning over the historically tense relationship between law enforcement and black people in the United States.
A 2015 U.S. Department of Justice investigation also found no basis to charge Wilson, but the report was a scathing indictment of the police department and raised serious concerns about the way officers treat black people and a court system that has left many in a cycle of debt.
