ST. LOUIS — It’s been nearly a week since Ferguson Police Officer Travis "T.J." Brown was critically injured after a protest on the 10th anniversary of Michael Brown's death turned violent.
The community continues to come together for Officer Brown and his family.
Ann Dorn lost her husband during protests around George Floyd's death, and ever since then, she's made it her mission to help officers in need during hard times like this.
She was a St. Louis police sergeant at the time, and her husband, Dave Dorn, was a retired St. Louis police captain and former Moline Acres chief.
Dorn saw the unrest in Ferguson in 2014, and when it happened again in St. Louis in 2020, she received a knock on the door from the chief of police.
“June of 2020, those summer riots when the George Floyd protests broke out and they came to St Louis the night of June 2, he responded to help a friend who owned a pawn shop whose alarm went off.," Dorn said. "And Dave always responded to the alarms, and he was confronted by protesters and murdered."
Four years after her husband's death, protests turned violent again. A decade after Michael Brown's death, Ferguson Police Officer Brown was pushed to the ground by a protester and suffered a life-threatening brain injury.
“It was just very uncalled for, and that hurt me more than anything because now the community is going to suffer,” Dorn said.
Ferguson Police Chief Troy Doyle said he's been to the hospital to visit Brown every day.
“Travis has been in an unconscious state, so obviously, he cannot communicate,” Doyle said.
Brown's family said on their GoFundMe page Wednesday that he was making small improvements that give them hope.
Dorn said they're all one big family, and she wants them to know she's there for them.
“I mainly reached out to the officers for their mental health as well because a couple of the officers in Ferguson have worked for me in the past," Dorn said, "and I was checking on them to make sure they had what they needed and to make sure that they were focusing on their health as well."
5 On Your Side’s Laura Barczewski asked Dorn, “What do we need to do now?”
“First of all, there's a long battle ahead for Travis and his family," she said. "It's getting him better, and that's a whole other struggle. Backstoppers will help with a lot of things, but there's going to be bills and expenses that aren't taken care of there. I know there was a GoFundMe set up, and if anyone's not sure, just take (your donation) up to the Ferguson Police Station, and they'll figure it out."
She added that the suspects responsible need to be held accountable.
“With the suspects, they have to follow through the prosecution, and it has to be prosecuted to the full extent," Dorn said. "And from what I've seen of Wesley Bell so far, he's done a phenomenal job, and he needs to continue to push through with that and make sure that these guys are held accountable for their actions. They need to be prosecuted, just like the man who killed my husband. The law needs to be upheld, and there shouldn't be exceptions made."
Doyle said he hopes Brown can soon hear these words: “Man, we love you. We love you. We want you back here. We miss you."
Dorn started the Captain David Dorn Foundation to help officers across the country.
“We start off as buying equipment for officers who make a lot less money than people realize," she said. "Across the country and even in the state of Missouri, once you get outside of major metropolitan areas, in rural areas, policemen make $13 to $16 an hour. A lot of them have to buy their own equipment, their own weapons. A lot of times, they're just handed a gun and that's it, and they're investing, sometimes $2,000 to $3,000 in just equipment to do their job."
You can donate to the Captain David Dorn Foundation here.
Officer Brown’s family said the donations they’ve received are a blessing and appreciate any additional contributions to the Ferguson Police Department or their GoFundMe campaign.