Man Accused of Killing 5 at Wisconsin Parade Had Lengthy Police Record
The New York Times
Dozens of people were injured, including children, after an S.U.V. tore through the Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis.
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.
