Ferguson police officer Travis Brown is father of two with ‘infectious smile’

The young Ferguson, Missouri, police officer and father of two girls who was left fighting for his life when he was violently pushed during protests on the 10th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, has a ” infectious smile’ and an ambition that quickly spurred him on. through the ranks, his former boss told The Post.

Travis Brown, a 36-year-old father, previously worked for the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department. Louis, where he served under former Police Chief Tim Fitch beginning in 2012.

“He was with me until I retired in 2014,” Fitch said. “I hired him.”

“I remember well when I commissioned him and after he was sworn in he had a family member put on his badge. I just remember the big smile on his face and I thought, ‘Boy, this guy has one of those contagious smiles,'” Fitch said.

That family is now holding a vigil at Brown’s bedside as he fights for his life after he was brutally pushed to the ground by an unruly protester on Friday, the 10th anniversary of the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Four days later, Travis Brown remains in critical condition at a Missouri hospital with a serious brain injury he suffered during the attack.

“There’s a lot of raw emotion about whether or not he’s going to be able to beat this and survive. And if he does, will he ever be able to go back to work?” Fitch told The Post after joining Ferguson police and community leaders for an emotional news conference Tuesday.

“He was very ambitious. It didn’t take long for him to enter a specialized facility. He was in a couple,” Fitch said, recalling how Brown was assigned to the St. Louis County Special Response Team. Louis shortly after joining the force.

“Then it went from there to the SWAT team which we call tactical operations.“

Brown served in St. Louis until January, when he joined the Ferguson Police Department, which rallied around their wounded officer.

“He is doing as well as can be expected. There are still a lot of hugs,” Fitch said of Tuesday’s news conference. “I know some of them had tears streaming down their faces.”

During the conference, passionate Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle released graphic footage of the attack, which showed Brown’s head slamming into a concrete sidewalk after he was accosted by suspect Elijah Gant, 28 year old.

“This guy tackled my guy like he was a football player,” said Doyle, who previously criticized protesters for treating the department like “a punching bag” since the 2014 killing of Michael Brown – even though the department’s staff has been almost entirely replaced since then. and now it’s more than half black.

Fitch, who worked with Doyle in St. Louis for 30 years before his appointment as Ferguson in 2023, described the boss as “built to” navigate the current situation.

“Whenever I had a tough assignment that I needed someone to handle, I put Troy Doyle in charge,” Fitch said. “He knew exactly what needed to be done and he did it with passion.”

“I thought we were over it until this happened over the weekend,” the former chief said of the violence in Ferguson. “I really thought we were past the violent side of it.”