The Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who was badly injured during a protest on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown’s death was moved to a rehabilitation hospital this, still not speaking but showing significant improvement, according to a family friend. On Tuesday, more than 100 officers and first responders from several St. Louis-area departments escorted an ambulance that took Officer Travis Brown from St. Louis University Hospital to Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri. He was flown to a rehab center in Atlanta, the Associated Press reports. Brown has still not spoken since he was knocked backward by a protester on Aug. 9, but is “cognitively all there,” family friend Terence Monroe told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Brown underwent several surgeries to address swelling and fluid on his brain. The man accused in the attack, 28-year-old Elijah Gantt of East St. Louis, Illinois, is awaiting trial on several charges. Michael Brown’s death led to months of often violent protests. It also spurred a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that required anti-discrimination changes to Ferguson policing and the courts. Toward the end of a day honoring Michael Brown on the anniversary of his death, a few remaining demonstrators began shaking and damaging a fence outside the police station, prompting Travis Brown and other officers to begin making arrests. Police released body camera and surveillance video that appeared to show Gantt on a sidewalk, charging Travis Brown, who fell and struck the back of his head.
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