Ferguson officer critically injured at protest on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown's death

A Ferguson, Missouri, police officer was critically injured outside the city's police station during protests on 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.

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

Two other officers also were hurt, one sustaining an ankle injury and another an abrasion. Both were treated at the scene.

The team of officers went out to make arrests Friday for 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.

One of the suspects was charged Saturday with assault of a special victim, resisting arrest and property damage. He was ordered held on $500,000 cash only bond. No information was immediately listed in online court records, so it wasn’t known if he had an attorney yet.

Doyle said that for the majority of the night, the protesters were peaceful. He said police allowed them to block the street outside the station, posting a squad car on each end, so they wouldn't be hit by vehicles.

Police also didn't intervene when the protesters began shaking the fence outside the station. But he said that when they broke a section of fencing, he sent out the arrest team. The suspect who charged at Travis Brown knocked him backward with his shoulder, and the officer hit his head as he tumbled to the ground, Doyle said.

Court records said the suspect then kept running and kicked two officers who tried to arrest him, leaving them with scratches and bruises.

Doyle said Travis Brown, who is Black, started with the department in January and previously worked for the St. Louis County Police Department.

He is part of a wave of Black officers hired into the department since 2014. Back then, there were just three Black officers in the department, but Black officers now make up more than half of the police force, Doyle said.

“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. I had to look his mother in the eye and tell her what happened to her son. I’m never going to do that again, I promise you that.”

St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell, who had stopped by the hospital beforehand to meet with the officer’s family, said others also would be charged.

“I always talk about you know the toughest part of this job is when we have a family that’s lost a loved one that we can’t bring justice to. And I’ve got to tweak that. The toughest thing I’ve had to do is talk and console with a mother who doesn’t know if her child is doing to make it. And for what?”

The Rev. Darryl Gray, a leading civil rights activist, urged the police chief to move with caution and “not to create an us versus them mentality."

“Right now,” Gray added, “all of our efforts and energy need to be positive towards the recovery of the police officer. And then second to that, to do an investigation, a fair and unbiased investigation to determine what the evidence is.”

The arrests came as the St. Louis Fire Department placed a member of the department on leave after he made a social media post that the department described as insensitive.

“We take this matter seriously and do not condone such behavior,” the department wrote.

The department didn’t disclose the contents of the post, but several news outlets in the area reported that it read: “Happy ALIVE day to Darren Wilson!”

Michael Brown’s death turned Ferguson into a focal point of the national reckoning with the historically tense relationship between U.S. law enforcement and Black people.

In 2015, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice also found no grounds to prosecute Wilson. But the report gave a scathing indictment of the police department — raising significant concerns about how officers treated Black people and about a court system that created a cycle of debt for many.

In this undated photo provided by Charlene Jefferson in August 2024, Travis Brown, when he was St. Louis County police officer, stands with Jefferson. Brown, a Ferguson Police officer, suffered a severe brain injury after he was knocked to the ground Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, during a protest in Ferguson, Mo., on the 10th anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown. (Courtesy Charlene Jefferson via AP)

In this undated photo provided by Charlene Jefferson in August 2024, Travis Brown, when he was St. Louis County police officer, stands with Danielle Oliver. Brown, a Ferguson Police officer, suffered a severe brain injury after he was knocked to the ground Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, during a protest in Ferguson, Mo., on the 10th anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown. (Charlene Jefferson via AP)

St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell leaves a news conference on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024 after he spoke about pending charges against people arrested in an incident outside the Ferguson, Mo., police station on Friday night where an officer was injured and is listed in critical condition with brain injury. Ferguson Police officer Travis Brown was injured in a chaotic scene where police were moving in to arrest people who damaged a fence around the police station. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

Protesters tussle with Ferguson, Mo., police on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, after demonstrations turned to turmoil with a couple of arrests outside the police department on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown's death at a gathering of several of the original protesters. Demonstrators removed a piece of the newly-installed gate that surrounds the department. (Christian Gooden//St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

The bottom of a fence surrounding the Ferguson, Mo., police station is repaired on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024 after it was damaged during a protest outside the police station on Friday night. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle gives a press conference on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024 about the incident outside the Ferguson, Mo., police station on Friday night where a Ferguson officer was injured and is listed in critical condition with a brain injury. Officer Travis Brown was hurt in a chaotic scene where police were moving in to arrest people who damaged a fence around the police station. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

Protesters lash out verbally at Ferguson, Mo., police on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, after protests turned to turmoil with a couple of arrests outside the police department on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown's death at a gathering of several of the original protesters. (Christian Gooden//St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

Ferguson police arrest Elijah Gant outside the Ferguson, Mo., police department on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, after protests turned to turmoil on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown's death at a gathering of several of the original protesters. (Christian Gooden//St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

Protesters dismantle and remove a portion of a newly-installed gate outside the Ferguson, Mo., police station on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, before their actions prompted arrests late on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown's death at a gathering of several of the original protesters. (Christian Gooden//St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

In this undated photo provided by Charlene Jefferson in August 2024, Travis Brown, when he was St. Louis County police officer, stands with Danielle Oliver. Brown, a Ferguson Police officer, suffered a severe brain injury after he was knocked to the ground Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, during a protest in Ferguson, Mo., on the 10th anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown. (Charlene Jefferson via AP)

A memorial to Michael Brown is displayed on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Mo., on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jim Salter)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The second trial for Vietnamese real estate typcoon Truong My Lan — who was sentenced to death for financial fraud in April — started on Thursday, state media reported.

The 67-year-old chair of the real estate company Van Thinh Phat was convicted for orchestrating Vietnam's biggest ever financial fraud case, amounting to $12.5 billion — nearly 3% of the country’s 2022 GDP and for illegally controlling a major bank allowing loans that resulted in losses of $27 billion, state media said.

Her arrest and conviction was one of the highest profile cases in an anti-corruption drive that has intensified since 2022. The so-called blazing furnace campaign has also singed the highest echelons of Vietnamese politics and led to the resignation of a former president who was implicated in it.

Lan is being tried on fresh charges of appropriating property fraudulently and money laundering. According to a police investigation, she raised $1.2 billion from nearly 36,000 investors by issuing bonds illegally through four companies, state media reports say.

Investigators found 21 companies controlled by Lan's Van Thinh Phat that illegally transferred over $4.5 billion in and out of Vietnam between 2012-2022.

She is also accused of siphoning off $18 billion obtained through fraud.

The case also involves 33 other defendants. It is expected to last a month.

Lan and her family established the Van Thing Phat company in 1992 after Vietnam shifted from a state-run economy to a more market-oriented approach that was open to foreign investors. She started out helping her mother, a Chinese entrepreneur, sell cosmetics in Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest market, according to the state media outlet Tien Phong.

Van Thinh Phat became one of Vietnam’s richest real estate firms, with projects including luxury residential buildings, offices, hotels and shopping centers. This made her a key player in the country’s financial industry.

Lan’s first trial shocked many Vietnamese. Analysts said the scale of the scam raised questions about whether other banks or businesses had similarly erred, dampening Vietnam’s economic outlook and making foreign investors jittery at a time when Vietnam is trying to position itself as the ideal home for businesses trying to diversify supply chains away from China.

Business woman Truong My Lan, a real estate tycoon sentenced to death for financial fraud, attends her second trial in Vietnam's largest fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Thanh Tung/VNExpress via AP)

Businesswoman Truong My Lan, a real estate tycoon sentenced to death for financial fraud, attends her second trial in Vietnam's largest fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Thanh Tung/VnExpress via AP)

Business woman Truong My Lan, center, a real estate tycoon sentenced to death for financial fraud, attends her second trial in Vietnam's largest fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Thanh Tung/VNExpress via AP)

Business woman Truong My Lan, a real estate tycoon sentenced to death for financial fraud, attends her second trial in Vietnam's largest fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Thanh Tung/VnExpress via AP)

Business woman Truong My Lan, a real estate tycoon sentenced to death for financial fraud, attends her second trial in Vietnam's largest fraud case in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Thanh Tung/VnExpress via AP)