A Ferguson, Missouri, police officer was critically injured outside the city's police station during protests this week marking the 10th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a pivotal moment in the national Black Lives Matter movement, police said Saturday. Ferguson police chief Troy Doyle said officer Travis Brown suffered a severe brain injury Friday after being knocked to the ground, the reports. "He is in an area hospital right now fighting for his life," Doyle said.
The team of officers went out to make arrests Friday in the destruction of property at the police station, where protesters gathered to remember Michael Brown, the unarmed Black 18-year-old who was killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in 2014. Doyle said. Two other officers were hurt, police said, one sustaining an ankle injury and the other an abrasion.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, who had stopped by the hospital beforehand to meet with the officer's family, said he is preparing charges. He declined to release the names of suspects until they were filed.
Travis Brown, who started with the department in January, previously worked for the St. Louis County Police Department, per the AP. "He wanted to be part of the change," Doyle said.
"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.
" Michael Brown's death turned Ferguson into the focal point of the national reckoning with the histor.