Man Accused of Killing 5 at Wisconsin Parade Had
Lengthy Police Record
Dozens of people were injured, including children,
after an S.U.V. tore through the Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis.
By Mitch
Smith, Dan Simmons, Glenn Thrush and Serge F. Kovaleski
Nov. 22,
2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/us/wisconsin-waukesha-parade.html
WAUKESHA,
Wis. — He had been arrested time and again since he was a teenager, accused of
battery and domestic abuse and resisting the police. Earlier this month,
prosecutors in Milwaukee said, he intentionally ran over a woman he knew with a
maroon Ford Escape.
But Darrell
E. Brooks, 39, was quickly freed from jail on bond after prosecutors requested
what they now say was an inappropriately low bail. By Sunday evening, as a
Christmas parade was making its way through downtown Waukesha, Wis., the police
were coming for Mr. Brooks again after receiving a report of a domestic dispute
involving a knife.
But before
Waukesha officers ever reached the site of that dispute, a maroon Ford Escape
toppled barriers along the parade route. The police said Mr. Brooks was the
driver, and that he sped toward the marching bands and the smiling families and
the troupe of “Dancing Grannies” strolling down Main Street, charging on even
as he mowed down children and octogenarians. One police officer fired his gun
at Mr. Brooks but quickly stopped, Chief Daniel Thompson said, fearful of
hitting someone in the crowd.
Five adults
died in the vehicle attack and at least 48 people, including children, were
injured, some critically. Within minutes, what the mayor described as “a Norman
Rockwell type of Christmas parade” in suburban Milwaukee had become a mass
casualty incident, with firefighters who were watching the parade with their
families suddenly tending to the wounded on the street.
At a
hospital not far from the parade route, off-duty doctors rushed to the
emergency room on Sunday night. Among the dead were three members of the
Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, and the husband of a member of that group.
“That
parade became a nightmare,” Mayor Shawn Reilly said Monday as investigators
continued to comb through a downtown that parade-goers had fled in such a hurry
that they left coolers, strollers and dozens of lawn chairs behind. “Last
night, lives were lost during the middle of what should have been a celebration.”
Chief
Thompson, of the Waukesha police, said there had been no pursuit by officers
before Mr. Brooks steered onto the parade route and no indication that the
attack was motivated by terrorism. While the chief said that Mr. Brooks
intentionally struck people with the vehicle, he was not able to say whether he
drove down the parade route in a rush to escape the earlier confrontation or in
a fit of fury.
Mr. Brooks
was expected to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon after police referred five
counts of first-degree intentional homicide to prosecutors. It was not clear
whether he had a lawyer.
Prosecutors
in Milwaukee County said they had erred this month in recommending a $1,000
cash bail in the case in which Mr. Brooks was accused, among other things, of
running over the woman with his car in the parking lot of a gas station, after
which she was hospitalized.
“The
state’s bail recommendation in this case was inappropriately low in light of
the nature of the recent charges and the pending charges against Mr. Brooks,”
the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office said in an unsigned statement,
which added that an investigation was underway into how that decision was made.
It said the bail amount was not “consistent with the risk assessment of the
defendant prior to setting of bail.”
John T.
Chisholm, the district attorney in Milwaukee, did not immediately respond to an
interview request. Mr. Chisholm, a Democrat, is a longtime prosecutor and one
of the early proponents of using real case data to address racial disparities
in prosecution.
In
Waukesha, a usually quiet suburb with about 72,000 residents, people were still
coming to terms with the carnage. Public schools were closed, City Hall opened
only for a news conference and police cars had cordoned off the parade route
during the morning rush hour.
Steve
Howard, chief of the Waukesha Fire Department, said every on-duty member of his
agency responded to the scene on Sunday, along with several off-duty members
who had been lining the streets to watch.
“I’d liken
it to a war zone,” Chief Howard said, his voice choked with emotion as he
recounted the chaotic scene.
Chief
Thompson, of the Police Department, said there was no indication that Mr.
Brooks knew anyone attending the parade. He said Mr. Brooks had acted alone and
that he was arrested near the parade route.
Mr. Brooks
had been in and out of the Wisconsin criminal justice system throughout his
adult life, racking up arrests in the Milwaukee area for resisting or
obstructing an officer, bail jumping, recklessly endangering safety, disorderly
conduct and battery, among other charges.
In rap
tracks he posted to a SoundCloud profile, he described himself as growing up in
a dangerous Milwaukee neighborhood and having trouble with the legal system. In
one video he posted online, he appeared to rap alongside a maroon Ford Escape.
The
incident in the gas station parking lot occurred on Nov. 2. The woman injured
by the vehicle told the police that Mr. Brooks had punched her in the face in a
hotel room, then followed her in his S.U.V. into the parking lot, where he hit
her with the car.
“Officers
observed tire tracks on her left pants leg,” wrote one of the officers,
according to a criminal complaint charging him with recklessly endangering the
woman, which carries a possible sentence of 10 years in prison.
The woman
was treated for injuries that included facial cuts and bruises. The police
observed “swelling on her lip and dried blood on her face.”
Mr. Brooks
has a long history of domestic abuse allegations and bench warrants in a
paternity case, which are typically issued for nonpayment of child support. In
February, a judge in Waukesha County issued a warrant for his arrest after he reneged
on a monthly agreement to pay a woman in the area $151 in child support and $50
in money he owed her, in a case that dates back more than a decade.
In many of
his brushes with the law, Mr. Brooks was accused of resisting arrest or
attempting to obstruct officers, according to the court records. That pattern
held true earlier this month: When the police tried to arrest him, he sprinted
into his residence and “closed four doors on officers” before they restrained
him, according to a criminal complaint.
Marsha
Winters, who said she was a friend and occasional lover to Mr. Brooks, said he
had stayed with her briefly over the summer after being released from jail. His
time lodging in the family’s basement lasted only a day or two in August, she
said.
“I’m just
in shock,” Ms. Winters said. “I thought I knew him. I guess you don’t know what
people are capable of until they do something like this.”
In Waukesha,
residents gathered Monday evening for a vigil at a downtown park as others came
to pick up items they left while fleeing the destruction. Chris Gresky, 36,
came to claim a wagon, filled with candy and other bagged snacks, that he left
behind while running away with his wife and children, past bodies strewn on the
ground.
“We saw the
car, and knew it wasn’t quite right,” Mr. Gresky said. “We watched it get up on
the curb and then kind of go on two wheels.”
“This
morning,” Mr. Gresky said, “my 6-year-old was asking ‘Why? Why did he do
that?’”
Mitch Smith
reported from Waukesha, and Dan Simmons from Milwaukee. Brandon Dupré and Ellen
Almer Durston contributed reporting from Waukesha. Reporting was also
contributed by Ben Decker, Shaila Dewan, Giulia Heyward and Shawn Hubler. Kitty
Bennett contributed research.
Mitch Smith
covers the Midwest and the Great Plains. Since joining The Times in 2014, he
has written extensively about gun violence, oil pipelines, state-level politics
and the national debate over police tactics. He is based in Chicago. @mitchksmith
Serge
Kovaleski is an investigative reporter on the National Desk. He joined The
Times in 2006, and was part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for
Breaking News for the coverage of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. @sergenyt
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