Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle expressed frustration Saturday afternoon after one of the department’s officers suffered a severe brain injury as he attempted to arrest a protester.
Officer Travis Brown is “fighting for his life” at a St. Louis-area hospital, Doyle said, following the confrontation that occurred Friday night outside the Ferguson Police Department.
Doyle said Brown was part of a team sent to arrest Elijah Gantt, 28, who was identified in a probable cause statement as one of the protesters who just before midnight broke and stole a large portion of fencing outside the police department.
The statement and subsequent charging documents detail that Gantt knocked the officer to the ground, causing his head to hit the pavement.
Gantt, of East St. Louis, was ordered held on a bond of $500,000. He's charged with first-degree assault, resisting arrest and property damage.
Brown sustained a severe head injury during the protest that for the majority of the night was peaceful, Doyle said. At least two other officers suffered minor injuries — one an ankle injury and another minor abrasions.
“This police department since 2014 has been a punching bag for this community,” Doyle said Saturday. “We don't even have them officers anymore, so what are you protesting? Everything that the activist community has advocated for as far as body-worn cameras, implicit-bias training, crisis intervention training — we have done all of this.
“We even changed the uniforms at this police department because people said the old uniforms triggered people,” he added.
The protest occurred on the 10-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s killing by Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer who shot Brown in 2014. Doyle was appointed police chief in 2023.
Community members held celebrations and demonstrations across Ferguson on Friday. Brown’s death sparked the Ferguson uprising and demands for police accountability and an end to racist policing practices.
Doyle said Saturday there are four police officers currently working for the department who were employed at the time of Brown’s killing. The Ferguson force then had three Black officers. Now, 22 of the department’s 41 officers are Black, he said.
Former Ferguson Police Chief Delrish Moss in a Facebook post Saturday said his thoughts and prayers are with officer Brown and the department. He resigned from the position in 2018.
“This recent incident serves as a stark reminder of the risks and dangers that our law enforcement officers face daily in service of our communities,” Moss’ post reads.
Officer Brown has been with the department since January, and prior to that served as a police officer with the St. Louis County Police Department.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell said Saturday afternoon that his office has charged four others in connection with the protest. The charges include assault, resisting or interfering with arrests and property destruction.
He said he visited the injured officer on Saturday at the hospital.
“The toughest thing that I've had to do is talk and console with a mother who doesn't know if her child is going to make it,” Bell said. “... As always, we do believe people have a right to peacefully protest, but when that line is crossed and people are harmed and property is damaged, people have to be held accountable."
Doyle said moving forward the public will be allowed to protest peacefully, but that his office won’t tolerate violence or property destruction.
