During demonstrations on the tenth anniversary of Michael Brown’s tragic shooting, which served as a turning point in the national Black Lives Matter movement, a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer suffered critical injuries outside the city’s police station, according to authorities on Saturday.
Officer Travis Brown was knocked down on Friday and suffered a catastrophic brain injury, according to Ferguson police chief Troy Doyle.
“He is in an area hospital right now fighting for his life,” Doyle stated.
Two other cops were also injured; one had an abrasion on his ankle, and the other had a cut on it. Both received care right away.
The police squad went out on Friday to make arrests for property destruction at the police station, where demonstrators had gathered to honor Michael Brown, the 18-year-old Black man who was unarmed and killed by White police officer Darren Wilson in 2014.
On Saturday, one of the suspects was charged with property damage, resisting arrest, and assault of a special victim. He was given a $500,000 cash-only bond to be kept. It was unknown whether he had legal representation at this point because no information was promptly posted in online court records.
Doyle said that the demonstrators remained peaceful for the most part of the evening. In order to protect them from being struck by cars, he added the police gave them permission to block the street outside the station and to put a squad car on either end.
When the demonstrators started to shake the fence outside the station, the police likewise remained silent. However, he claimed that he dispatched the arrest squad when they damaged a piece of fencing. Travis Brown was knocked backward by the defendant who charged at him, according to Doyle, and when he fell to the ground, the cop struck his head.
According to court documents, the guy then continued to flee and gave two cops who were attempting to detain him scrapes and bruises from their kicks.
Black employee Travis Brown, according to Doyle, joined the force in January after having previously worked for the St. Louis County Police Department.
He is one of several Black cops who the department has hired since 2014. There were just three Black policemen in the department back then, but according to Doyle, today there are more than half of the police force who are Black.
“He wanted to be part of the change,” Doyle stated. “He wanted to make an impact in our community. He’s the type of officer that we want in our community. And what happens? He gets assaulted. I had to look his mother in the eye and tell her what happened to her son. I’m never going to do that again, I promise you that.”
Wesley Bell, the prosecutor for St. Louis County, who had visited the hospital earlier to speak with the officer’s family, announced that more charges would be brought against others.
Read Also:Â Shocking Violence in St. Pete: 11-year-old Child Killed in Heated Argument
“I always talk about you know the toughest part of this job is when we have a family that’s lost a loved one that we can’t bring justice to. And I’ve got to tweak that. The toughest thing I’ve had to do is talk and console with a mother who doesn’t know if her child is doing to make it. And for what?”
Leading black rights activist Rev. Darryl Gray advised the police chief to proceed cautiously and “not to create a us versus them mentality.”
The St. Louis Fire Department made an insensitive social media post, which prompted them to place one of its officers on leave. This led to the charges.
The post’s contents were not disclosed by the department, but local news sources claimed to have seen the following: “Happy ALIVE day to Darren Wilson!”
Following Michael Brown’s passing, Ferguson became the center of attention for the country’s examination of the historically contentious relationship between Black people and American law enforcement.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation in 2015 likewise revealed insufficient evidence to support Wilson’s prosecution. However, the report delivered a harsh critique of the police force, bringing up serious issues with how officers handled Black people and a judicial system that left many in a never-ending cycle of debt.
