Michael Brown allegedly beat Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson so badly that the he suffered an orbital fracture and was nearly unconscious before firing his weapon, a source told Fox News Wednesday. The unarmed teenager was killed by gunfire Aug. 9.

“The Assistant [Police] Chief took him to the hospital, his face all swollen on one side,” the news outlet’s inside source said of Officer Wilson’s condition immediately following the altercation. “He was beaten very severely.”

The source, which Fox said is “close to the department’s top brass,” said that when confronted by the police officer and told to stop walking in the middle of the road, Michael Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson ignored the order.

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“They ignored him and the officer started to get out of the car to tell them to move,” the source told Fox News. “They shoved him right back in, that’s when Michael Brown leans in and starts beating Officer Wilson in the head and the face,” the individual added.

Fox’s source also added that “solid proof” existed that a struggle for Ofc. Wilson’s gun took place.

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. arrived in Ferguson and met with Ron Johnson, a Missouri State Highway Patrol captain who was tasked by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to coordinate law enforcement efforts. Mr. Holder said that there would be a “fair and thorough” federal inquiry into the incident in a letter addressed to the citizens of Ferguson.

“We hope that the independence and thoroughness of our investigation will bring some measure of calm to the tensions in Ferguson,” he said. “In order to begin the healing process, however, we must first see an end to the acts of violence in the streets.”

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