CNN
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A Ferguson police officer is “fighting for his life” after being attacked during protests Friday night. The incident occurred several days following events marking the 10th anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown by a police department officer.

Protesters were allowed to block several streets near the Ferguson Police Department, and demonstrations were peaceful for most of the evening until some people began “violently” shaking the police station fence, Police Chief Troy Doyle said at a news conference Saturday.

“We did not respond. We stayed here and let them shake the fence,” the police chief said. “This happened several times throughout the night until they broke through the bottom of our fence. They destroyed property in the parking lot of our police department.”

At that point, Doyle sent out his arrest team to make arrests for criminal damage. The team was attacked by several protesters and one of the officers, identified by police as Travis Brown, suffered a severe brain injury, Doyle said.

“He is currently in a nearby hospital fighting for his life,” said the chief, who was visibly emotional during the press conference.

As the officer attempted to arrest someone who had broken open and stolen a large section of the station’s fence outside, the suspect “violently” attacked him with his shoulder, knocking the officer to the ground and causing a head injury, Doyle said. Two other officers were injured Friday night, including one with an ankle injury and another with abrasions, Doyle said.

Elijah Gantt, 28, faces five charges in connection with the assault of Officer Travis Brown, including resisting prosecution, first-degree criminal damage to property and two counts of fourth-degree assault, according to the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office.

Gantt is being held on $500,000 bail and must remain 1,500 feet from the Ferguson police station, prosecutors said. CNN could not determine if Gantt has legal representation.

St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell said at the press conference that several other protesters were in custody and prosecutors were working to file additional charges against them.

Friday marked exactly ten years to the day that 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson while walking down the street with his friend on August 9, 2014. The police left his body lying in the street in the scorching sun for four and a half hours – long enough for his children and family to see him lying there.

Officer Darren Wilson was acquitted of federal civil rights violations and criminal misconduct.

Officer Travis Brown joined the force in January after working with the St. Louis County Police Department, the police chief said. He said the officer joined the force “because he was inspired to do the right thing. He wanted to be part of the change.”

“We believe people have the right to protest peacefully, but when that line is crossed and people are hurt or property is damaged, people need to be held accountable,” Bell said.

The Ferguson Police Department looks nothing like it did in 2014. Back then, the force had about 60 officers, fewer than five of whom were African American, Doyle told CNN. Brown’s killing and the protests that followed left a lasting impression on the police department and its approach to policing, Doyle said.

“I had to look his mother in the eyes and tell her what happened to her son. I will never do that again. I promise you I will never do that again,” Doyle said, adding that his police department has been a “punching bag for this community” since 2014.

Doyle said “maybe four” Ferguson police officers from 2014 are still employed by the department. “This is a brand new police department. I don’t know why officers here who weren’t even here in 2014 have to continue to go through this. It doesn’t make sense,” Doyle said.

Friday’s protests followed the Brown family’s week-long tribute to the young man who was and could have been Mike Brown.

On Friday, Michael Brown Sr. and his wife, Cal Brown, walked the four miles through the streets of Ferguson from the high school where their son graduated just days before his death to what they call “ground zero”: the jagged patch of asphalt where the teenager lay, still untouched despite the passing of years.

The killing of Mike Brown and the hundreds of days of protests that followed galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and brought the issue of police use of violence against unarmed black people to the forefront of US politics like never before. Yet a decade later, progress in preventing such killings remains frustratingly slow.

The agency remains subject to a 2016 federal settlement order issued after the Justice Department released a scathing report that found city officials and courts had engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discriminating against African Americans by disproportionately conducting traffic stops, using force and imposing prison sentences.

While Brown Sr. acknowledged that Ferguson Police have made progress over the years, he compared the changes to a “rebranding exercise,” CNN reported.

“They’ve tried doing different things, body cameras, no more checks,” he said during the social media interview earlier this week. “It’s just such a cancer in this system that now they can’t just change the faces, they have to change the whole system.”

Doyle said his goal as chief is to work with the people of Ferguson to ensure his department is viewed as a “legitimate, effective and professional law enforcement agency,” CNN previously reported.

CNN’s Sara Smart, Chelsea Bailey and Kara Devlin contributed to this report.