Missouri police officer seriously injured at protest ‘fighting for his life’

Doyle did not comment further on Brown’s condition, but Ferguson police spokeswoman Pat Washington previously said the officer was in critical condition. She also confirmed that Brown has no relationship with Michael Brown’s family.

Both Doyle and St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said they had visited the officer’s family in the hospital.

“He’s in an area hospital right now, fighting for his life,” Doyle said.

Brown has been with the Ferguson department since January of this year and was previously with the St. Louis County police for more than 10 years, Washington said.

“Travis Brown took this job because he was inspired to do the right thing,” Doyle said. “He wanted to be a part of change. He wanted to make an impact in our community. He’s the kind of officer we want in our community. And what happens? He gets attacked. I had to look his mother in the eye and tell her what happened to her son.”

Two other officers suffered minor injuries during the protest, Doyle said.

About 40 people gathered Friday night on the 10th anniversary of the police shooting of Michael Brown, which began as a gathering outside Ferguson police headquarters.

Traffic was diverted to make room as people drank beer, ate and filled the street.

Angelique Kidd, who protested daily in Ferguson in 2014, joins other protesters in front of the Ferguson Police Department on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown’s death during a gathering of several of the original protesters.

Many had protested there 10 years ago on the same street, South Florissant Road.

At the tense Saturday afternoon news conference, Doyle stood with Bell and about 50 St. Louis County and Ferguson deputies behind him. He paused in his prepared statement to lament the situation.

“This police department — this Ferguson Police Department — since 2014 has been a punching bag for this community,” he said.

“In 2014, the police department didn’t even have any officers left. Why are they protesting these officers? Everything that the activist community has advocated for, in terms of body cameras, implicit bias training, crisis intervention training, we’ve done it all. Why are we protesting?”

Doyle said most people at Friday night’s gathering were peaceful and his officers did not intervene until close to midnight.

He said protesters shook a fence outside the police station throughout the night.

“We didn’t even react,” he said. “We just stood here and let them shake the fence. That happened several times throughout the night, to the point where they broke the lower parts of our fence. They destroyed property in our police department parking lot. It was at that point that I sent an arrest team to make an arrest for destruction of property.”

Some time before that, police officers also went out and helped a woman who was having a seizure, Doyle said.

Workers were seen working on the metal gate in front of the apartment on Saturday afternoon.

In addition to charging Gantt, prosecutors charged four other protesters on Saturday.

St. Louis resident Emily Davis is charged with third-degree assault on a special victim and resisting or interfering with arrest. St. Louis resident Keith Rose, Derrick Robinson and St. Louis resident Phillip March were each charged with first-degree property damage.

According to authorities, Gantt and Davis remained in custody as of Saturday afternoon. Davis was being held on $5,000 cash bail. The other three had not been arrested.

“We believe that people have the right to peacefully protest,” Bell said during the press conference. “But when that line is crossed and people or property is harmed, people need to be held accountable. And we intend to hold these individuals fully accountable. We are praying for a speedy recovery for Officer Brown, and our thoughts and prayers are with him today.”

Bell also said there was a need to calm tensions in the community to prevent further violence.

Some people gathered outside the police department after Saturday’s news conference and questioned Doyle’s description of events.

Angelique Kidd said she did not believe police followed protocol in trying to disperse the crowd, particularly because officers did not tell the crowd to disperse before arresting people.

“So at any point that it would have become an unlawful assembly where they needed to go in and rush the crowd to make arrests, then they should have made a public announcement,” Kidd said.

“And there are written rules that state what they should have done, and that is what I want to make sure is made public.”

Asked for more details during the briefing, Doyle said the events were still under investigation.

Later, Washington, the agency spokesman, said the department had not attempted to break up the rally. He said officers had gone there to arrest people suspected of damaging property, but that they were going to allow the peaceful protest to continue.

The Post-Dispatch’s Namratha Prasad contributed to this report.

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