Ferguson, Mo., officer critically hurt during unrest on anniversary of Brown slaying

Aug. 10 (UPI) -- An officer in Ferguson, Mo., suffered severe head injuries after clashing with demonstrators at the city's police headquarters on the 10th anniversary of the Michael Brown Jr. slaying, authorities said Saturday.

The officer was hospitalized and is "fighting for his life" after he was attacked by protesters during clashes along a fence surrounding the station late on Friday, Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle told reporters at a press briefing.

The unrest came following day of peaceful tributes and memorials marking the death of Brown, a Black 18-year-old whose fatal shooting by a White Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9, 2014, triggered waves of protests and catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement across the country.

Doyle said demonstrators gathered at the police station after dark and began shaking a security fence surrounding the building. At one point, the fence was broken by the shaking and a team of officers were sent out to make arrests on charges of criminal damage to property.

It was then that a protester "assaulted" the officer, who fell and his head after being shoved backwards, the chief said.

"As a result one of my police officers suffered a severe brain injury," he said. "He is in an area hospital right now fighting for his life."

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell told reporters the injured officer was identified as Travis Brown. Elijah Gantt, 28, of East St. Louis, Ill., was charged with assault and other crimes in connection with incident and is being held on $500,000 bond.

Doyle decried the protest at the station, claiming that city officials in the predominantly Black suburb of St. Louis have reformed the department in the decade since Brown's slaying and that Friday's disturbances were unjustified.

"The Ferguson Police Department since 2014 has been a punching bag for this community," he declared. "We don't even have those officers here anymore, so what are you protesting?

"Everything that the activist community has advocated for -- body-worn cameras, crisis intervention training, all of it -- we have done it all. Ten years later I have an officer fighting for his life. It's enough."