ST. LOUIS — Hot off the press.
A St. Louis embroidery company is making hundreds of shirts for Ferguson Police Officer Travis Brown this week.
Brown remains in a coma after a protester violently shoved him to the ground more than two weeks ago.
On Aug. 23, his family updated their GoFundMe page, saying, "We wanted to share a positive update. TJ’s pneumonia is beginning to subside and he is stable. We’re hopeful that in the coming days, as sedation is gradually reduced, we will see his beautiful eyes open again. Thank you for your continued love and support."
On Monday, Mattingly's Embroidery in Overland started working on close to 400 shirts dedicated to Brown.
Co-owners Dorris Finnegan and Frank Mattingly said Brown's family designed these shirts.
On the front, it has the Ferguson Police Department's badge with three words: Progress, change and healing.
On the back, it says "TJ Strong" along with his last name and his badge number 747.
All of the profits will go to Brown's two children.
"He has two little girls, we know there were some adjustments," Finnegan said.
Adjustments that uproot a life. An upheaval Finnegan knows well.
"My late husband was in law enforcement and he passed away in 2012. He died by suicide and I wasn't able to get any benefits from BackStoppers or any other organization. Over the years it was a struggle to raise three girls," Finnegan admitted.
Motivated by this, Mattingly's Embroidery has given back since 2019.
The first was to the fiancée of fallen Officer Michael Langsdorf.
Finnegan explained, "Since then, we've donated probably back $100,000 to fallen first responder's family."
Each print is backed with a helping hand, Finnegan says their hearts are in it too.
"We know hurt, we know pain. My husband died 12 years ago, (Mattingly's son) died 10 years ago, so we understand grief and that's a big part of it," Finnegan said, adding, "Sometimes it takes a tragedy for other people to see there is good in our communities."
For a link to the T-shirts, click here.
On Saturday night, The Drink House STL in Pagedale held a fundraiser for the 36-year-old officer.
Total numbers came in Monday and the event raised almost $8,000.