The death of a DCFS worker who was beaten while taking a child into protective custody was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner on Friday.

Pamela Knight died Thursday in a Chicago hospital, more than four months after she was attacked while attempting to take a boy into protective custody, authorities said.

The medical examiner ruled Friday that Knight’s death was a homicide and the result of complications of blunt force trauma and head injuries.

Knight, an investigator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, was attempting to remove a 2-year-old from a home in Milledgeville, in western Illinois, when, according to authorities, Andrew Sucher knocked her down and kicked her in the head. The blows fractured Knight’s skull and caused permanent brain damage. Knight, 59 and from nearby Dixon, was airlifted to a Rockford hospital and underwent two brain surgeries.

Knight was later moved to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago but had recently been transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for emergency surgery.

The beating occurred in the home of Sucher’s parents, officials said. Sucher, 25, of Rock Falls, was later charged with attempted first-degree murder, has pleaded not guilty and is in jail awaiting trial.

Prosecutors in Carroll County could not be reached for comment regarding whether, in light of Knight’s death, the charges against Sucher will be upgraded.