On November 21, 2021, Darrell E. Brooks Jr. drove a
sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...
(SUV) through the annual
Christmas parade
Santa Claus parades, also called Christmas parades, are parades held in some countries to celebrate the official opening of the Christmas season with the arrival of Santa Claus who always appears in the last float.
The parades usually include them ...
in
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Waukesha ( ) is the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Its population was 71,158 at the 2020 census. The city is adjacent to the Village of Waukesha.
History
The area that ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, killing six people and injuring sixty-two others.
Brooks pleaded not guilty to six counts of
first-degree intentional homicide
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
and seventy-one additional charges, and chose to
represent himself at his trial, which began on October 3, 2022.
Brooks presented
pseudolegal
Pseudolaw consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be based on accepted law or legal doctrine, but which deviate significantly from most conventional understandings of law and jurisprudence, or which originate from non-exis ...
arguments from the
sovereign citizen movement
The sovereign citizen movement (also SovCit movement or SovCits) is a loose grouping of litigants, activists, tax protesters, financial scheme promoters and conspiracy theorists, who claim to be answerable only to their particular interpretati ...
and was repeatedly removed from the courtroom for failing to comply with decorum and courtesy.
On October 26, 2022, a jury found Brooks guilty on all seventy-six charges.
He was sentenced to six consecutive
life sentence
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
s without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 763 years and 3 months, to be served consecutively on November 16, 2022.
Background
Waukesha, a western suburb of
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, has a traditional, annual
Christmas parade
Santa Claus parades, also called Christmas parades, are parades held in some countries to celebrate the official opening of the Christmas season with the arrival of Santa Claus who always appears in the last float.
The parades usually include them ...
downtown. In 2020, the parade was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
The 2021 parade, the 58th annual event, featured more than 60 entries and had the theme of "Comfort and Joy".
Attack
![2010 Ford Escape XLT 1 -- 04-27-2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/2010_Ford_Escape_XLT_1_--_04-27-2010.jpg)
On November 21, 2021, around 4:39 p.m. (
CST), a red 2010
Ford Escape
The Ford Escape is a compact crossover SUV sold by Ford since 2000 over four generations. The first generation was jointly developed with Mazda which also created the Mazda Tribute and Mercury Mariner as the twin model. Second generations of th ...
SUV, moving at about , broke through barricades and was driven through the annual Christmas parade in Waukesha.
One police officer banged on the hood of the SUV in an attempt to get the driver to stop.
In the final stage of the rampage, an officer fired his gun in an attempt to stop the vehicle.
The parade was
live-streamed
Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...
, and other attendees captured the incident on videos later posted to social media. Two eyewitnesses told reporters that the driver did not initially stop; all they could hear was people screaming and crying.
One witness described the driver as "calm and composed".
Police reported that the driver deliberately targeted the crowd, driving in a "
zig-zag
A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular.
In geometry, this pattern is described as a ...
pattern" to hit as many people as possible.
Victims
![Abandoned items from Christmas Parade Broadway and Main Waukesha Wisconsin parade](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Abandoned_items_from_Christmas_Parade_Broadway_and_Main_Waukesha_Wisconsin_parade.jpg)
During the immediate aftermath of the ramming, five people were confirmed killed and forty-eight others were injured.
The five dead were identified as four women and one man.
Four of the dead were members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, a dance group composed solely of grandmothers.
Hospitals admitted twenty-eight people, nine of whom were in critical condition.
Seventeen children were among the wounded,
with three remaining hospitalized at
Children's Wisconsin until early December.
By November 23, two days after the incident, the number of people reported injured had increased to sixty-two and the number of fatalities had increased to six after an eight-year-old child died at a hospital.
The ages of the dead ranged from 8 to 81.
Aftermath
The Waukesha Police Department issued a
shelter-in-place
Shelter-in-place (SIP; also known as a shelter-in-place warning, SAME code SPW) is the act of seeking safety within the building one already occupies, rather than evacuating the area or seeking a community emergency shelter. The American Red Cro ...
order for parts of Waukesha but withdrew it the same evening.
The
Waukesha School District cancelled school on November 22 and made additional counselors available to students.
On November 22, vigils were held across the city. A week after the attacks the city of Waukesha held a moment of silence. Children's Wisconsin opened a
crisis hotline
A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate emergency telephone counseling, usually by trained volunteers. The first such service was founded in England in 1951 and such hotlines have existed in most major cities of the E ...
for those seeking emotional and psychological support. First Lady
Jill Biden
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator and the current first lady of the United States since 2021, as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her hus ...
met privately with victims' family members and attended a memorial to the victims on December 15.
Several donation efforts were made, with nearly $900,000 having been raised on
GoFundMe
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the b ...
for victims of the attack,
and 7,000 donations being made raising over $1.8 million to the United for Waukesha Community Fund. In addition, local contractors volunteered to install
wheelchair ramp
A wheelchair ramp is an inclined plane installed in addition to or instead of stairs. Ramps permit wheelchair users, as well as people pushing strollers, carts, or other wheeled objects, to more easily access a building, or navigate between ar ...
s in the homes of those injured from the attack who would need wheelchairs.
In March 2022, the United for Waukesha Community Fund announced that they had raised more than $6.2 million for the victims of the attack.
Perpetrator
On the day of the attack, police recovered a damaged Ford Escape and arrested 39-year-old Darrell Edward Brooks Jr. (born February 21, 1982), who was born and raised in Milwaukee, and has an extensive criminal record dating back to 1999.
Brooks was arrested on the night of the attack, soon after he told a Waukesha resident that he was homeless and asked to use his phone to call an
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
.
The man was unaware of the events that had occurred and permitted Brooks briefly inside his home, giving him a sandwich and letting him borrow a jacket but asked him to leave when police arrived. Brooks left the man's home and surrendered to police without incident.
It is believed Brooks acted alone and did not know anyone at the parade.
Police investigated whether he was fleeing from a nearby domestic disturbance when encountering the parade.
The police chief said, "We have information that the suspect prior to the incident was involved in a domestic disturbance, which was just minutes prior, and the suspect left that scene just prior to our arrival to that domestic disturbance."
He also said that Brooks was not being chased by police when he drove into the parade route.
Prosecutors have alleged that Brooks was trying to "strike and hurt as many people as possible".
A
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
account reported to belong to Brooks contained viewpoints aligning with that of the
Black Hebrew Israelites
Black Hebrew Israelites (also called Hebrew Israelites, Black Hebrews, Black Israelites, and African Hebrew Israelites) are groups of African Americans who believe that they are the descendants of the ancient Israelites. Some sub-groups believ ...
(BHI), where he also advocated violence against
white people
White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as ...
. According to the
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
(ADL), his former social media accounts "indicate support for some conspiratorial,
Black nationalist
Black nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race (human categorization), race, and which seeks to develop and maintain a black racial and national identity. Black natio ...
and
antisemitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
beliefs" and it also wrote that an image posted on his alleged former Facebook account in 2015 had originally been "circulated by members of the Black Hebrew Israelites".
The ADL also wrote that while Brooks had shared conspiratorial-themed social media posts in 2015, "there appears to be little evidence that Brooks actively subscribes to an overarching extremist ideology."
Criminal history
Brooks had been arrested three weeks prior to the Waukesha attack for hitting his ex-girlfriend, and ramming the woman with the same vehicle during a domestic dispute at a gas station in Milwaukee.
The charges against him for that case include second-degree recklessly endangering safety with domestic abuse assessments, a felony, as well as disorderly conduct with domestic abuse assessments; misdemeanor battery with domestic abuse assessments; and obstructing an officer. Brooks posted $1,000 bail on November 19, two days before the Waukesha attack, and was released.
Brooks was also arrested five months and five weeks prior to the dispute for
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
while staying at the
Country Hearth Inn
Vantage Hospitality Group Inc. was an American hotel corporation, operating hotels in the United States and internationally. Its brands include Best Value Inn and Lexington by Vantage. In 2016, Vantage Hospitality Group was acquired by Red Lion Hot ...
in
Union City, Georgia
Union City is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 19,456 at the 2010 census.
History
The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Union City in 1908. One source claims that the town was named for the union of rails ...
, when a witness told police that he confronted Brooks after hearing Brooks arguing and beating up his ex-girlfriend on the other side of the wall repeatedly in a hotel room. According to
WXIA-TV
WXIA-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL (channel 36). Both stations share studios at One Monroe Place on the north en ...
, Brooks flashed a firearm in front of her during the argument. After spending the rest of the day behind bars at the East Point Law Enforcement Center in
East Point East Point is the name of several places:
In Australia
* East Point, Northern Territory
** East Point Military museum located in East Point, Northern Territory
In Canada
*East Point, Prince Edward Island
In Hong Kong:
*East Point, Hong Kong
In ...
, Brooks appeared in court the following day on May 28 and ended up receiving a signature bond, but never made it to its signature court date.
On July 24, 2020, while living in the Milwaukee community area of Arlington Heights near
Shorewood, Brooks was charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and felon in possession of a firearm after he allegedly shot at his nephew and a friend after a fight over a cell phone near a North 19th Street house in the Milwaukee community area of North Division. Less than a year later on February 9, 2021, he was released with a $500 bond (that was originally set at $10,000).
At the time of the attack, Brooks also had an outstanding warrant for a
statutory sex crime in
Sparks, Nevada
Sparks is a city in Washoe County, Nevada, United States. It was founded in 1904, incorporated on March 15, 1905, and is located just east of Reno. The 2020 U.S. Census counted 108,445 residents in the city. It is the fifth most populous city in ...
, which was issued in 2016. Nearly ten years earlier, in November 2006, he was convicted of a felony statutory sexual seduction after impregnating a 15-year-old girl in Sparks. After pleading guilty in March 2007, Brooks was sentenced to 12–36 months at the
Northern Nevada Correctional Center
Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC) and Stewart Conservation Camp (SCC) are part of a prison complex located in Carson City, Nevada, Carson City. The correctional center was established in 1964 and is managed by the Nevada Department of ...
in
Carson City
Carson City is an Independent city (United States), independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the List of cities in Nevada, sixth largest ...
until being released in September 2008. Brooks also had previous criminality charges in two other Wisconsin cities,
Manitowoc in 2005, and
Wisconsin Rapids
Wisconsin Rapids is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, Wisconsin. The population was 18,877 at the 2020 census. The city also forms one of the core areas of the United States Census Bureau's Marshfield-Wisconsin Rapids Micropolit ...
in 2010.
Legal proceedings
Pre-trial proceedings
Brooks was initially charged with five counts of
first-degree intentional homicide
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
. Following the death of a sixth victim, Brooks's bond was set at $5 million, and he remained in custody, following an initial court appearance.
The
Waukesha County District Attorney said more charges were likely to come
and charged Brooks with a sixth count of first degree intentional homicide on November 29.
Brooks was interviewed by
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
while he was in custody and he said, "I just feel like I'm being monster–demonized."
His mother wrote a letter to the media saying Brooks had a long history of mental health problems and no health insurance to pay for treatment.
In December, Brooks was charged further for the November 21 incident, with charges of intimidating a witness and intimidation of a victim, both felonies. Brooks is alleged to have called his girlfriend from jail over several days and threatened her to prevent her cooperation with the investigation.
In January 2022, seventy-seven additional charges were filed against Brooks for the parade attack, including sixty-one counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety with a dangerous weapon, six counts of hit and run involving death, two counts of felony bail jumping, and two counts of domestic abuse. The latter charges are in relation to two altercations between Brooks and his girlfriend on the day of the attack and the day before.
Trial
On January 14, 2022, Waukesha Court Commissioner Kevin Costello ruled in
preliminary hearing
Within some criminal justice, criminal justice systems, a preliminary hearing, preliminary examination, preliminary inquiry, evidentiary hearing or probable cause hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecuto ...
that Brooks would stand trial due to "ample evidence on all fronts". Waukesha police detective Thomas Casey testified in the hearing as a witness, saying that he and other officers at the scene yelled at Brooks to stop. At the same time, Brooks zigzagged with his vehicle for blocks to strike pedestrians. Brooks's defense attorney Anna Kees argued that Brooks was
high
High may refer to:
Science and technology
* Height
* High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area
* High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory
* High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...
during the incident, noting that the police officers who arrested him noticed that Brooks smelled of
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...
and had
red glassy eyes. Kees also claimed that Brooks did not intend to kill anyone, as he "couldn't bring himself" to look at photos of the victims. District Attorney Susan Opper counter-argued that all that Brooks had to do was stop and that even if he was intoxicated, he still committed multiple crimes.
On February 11, 2022, Brooks pleaded not guilty to all charges. Defense attorney Jeremy Perri entered two motions, requesting in the first one for a different trial in a different county, claiming that Brooks was unlikely to receive a fair and impartial
jury trial
A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a Trial, legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or Question of law, findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or Judicial panel, panel of judges makes all decisions.
...
in grief-stricken Waukesha, citing the "ubiquitous" Waukesha Strong solidarity movement within the county. The second motion requested a new judge for the case, for which no reason was given. Court Commissioner Costello denied the first motion but granted the second motion, reassigning the case from Judge Michael Bohren to Chief Judge
Jennifer Dorow
Jennifer R. Dorow (' Evans; born 1970) is an American Lawyer, attorney from Wisconsin. She is a Wisconsin circuit courts, Wisconsin circuit court judge in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, Waukesha County, serving since 2011. She previously served as ...
. One month later, Dorow scheduled Brooks's trial for October 3, 2022, at the Waukesha County Circuit Court. Before jury selection, one count of domestic battery was dropped by the prosecutors.
In a pre-trial hearing, Brooks requested self-representation. Judge Dorow considered the request and ruled that Brooks could proceed ''
pro se
''Pro se'' legal representation ( or ) comes from Latin ''pro se'', meaning "for oneself" or "on behalf of themselves" which, in modern law, means to argue on one's own behalf in a legal proceeding, as a defendant or plaintiff in civil cases, o ...
''. During proceedings, Brooks used arguments from the
sovereign citizen movement
The sovereign citizen movement (also SovCit movement or SovCits) is a loose grouping of litigants, activists, tax protesters, financial scheme promoters and conspiracy theorists, who claim to be answerable only to their particular interpretati ...
, a
pseudolegal
Pseudolaw consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be based on accepted law or legal doctrine, but which deviate significantly from most conventional understandings of law and jurisprudence, or which originate from non-exis ...
movement whose adherents claim that courts do not have
jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels.
Jur ...
over them.
Brooks declared himself to be "
sovereign
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
", stated that he did not consent to being
recognized by his name,
asked if the court was "a
common law
In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
court or an
admiralty law
Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between priva ...
court",
and argued that since the state of Wisconsin was an entity rather than a person, it could not file a claim against him. These arguments have not succeeded before in criminal trials; Judge Dorow ruled that Brooks was not allowed to argue that he was a sovereign citizen in court, stating that the defense was without merit.
During his trial, Brooks was repeatedly removed from the courtroom after failing to comply with decorum; some of these instances included Brooks engaging in numerous interruptions, back talking, glaring, and other outbursts with Judge Dorow.
On October 24, 2022, Brooks was given the chance to offer the defense; however, due to Brooks's repeated misbehavior and failing to follow decorum, Judge Dorow ruled that he had forfeited his right to call further witnesses (which would have included his mother) and declared the evidentiary stage of the trial over. Closing arguments began on October 25, and the jury deliberations began that same day.
On October 26, the jury returned with
guilty verdicts on all seventy-six counts, after deliberating for a total of three hours and fifteen minutes.
Brooks was sentenced on November 16, 2022. Judge Dorow imposed six life sentences without parole, one for each of the deceased victims, to be served consecutively. For the sixty-one counts of reckless endangerment, she sentenced Brooks to a total of 762 years of initial confinement and 305 years of extended supervision. For the six counts of hit-and-run, Brooks received 150 years to run concurrently with the reckless endangerment sentences.
He is currently confined at
Waupun
Waupun is a city in Dodge County, Wisconsin, Dodge and Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Fond du Lac counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 11,344 at the 2020 census. Of this, 7,795 were in Dodge County, and 3,549 were in Fond du ...
's
Dodge Correctional Institution
Dodge Correctional Institution (DCI) is an adult male maximum-security correctional facility operated by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections Division of Adult Institutions in Waupun, Wisconsin, US. The facility was converted from the Centr ...
.
Post-trial
After conviction and sentencing, Brooks filed for an appeal. He filed a motion for a stay of judgment pending appeal. He was placed on a
suicide prevention protocol.
Response
Wisconsin Governor
Tony Evers
Anthony Steven Evers (born November 5, 1951) is an American educator and politician serving as the 46th governor of Wisconsin since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Wisconsin's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 200 ...
expressed gratitude for the efforts of
first responder
A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...
s and
good Samaritans
The parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It is about a traveler (implicitly understood to be Jewish) who is stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road. First, a Jewish priest and then a ...
, and voiced support for affected families and community members.
Evers ordered the United States and Wisconsin flags to be flown at half-staff the day after the incident in honor of the victims. President of the United States
Joe Biden condemned the incident, calling it a "horrific act of violence". Wisconsin senators
Tammy Baldwin
Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin (born February 11, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Wisconsin since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms in the Wisconsin Stat ...
and
Ron Johnson
Ronald Harold Johnson (born April 8, 1955) is an American accountant, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Se ...
released a joint statement, asking people to avoid using the event for political purposes.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
sent prayers and condolences to the victims on a message signed on his behalf.
Waukesha County
Waukesha County () is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 406,978, making it the third-most populous county in Wisconsin. Its county seat and largest city is Waukesha.
Waukesha Co ...
Executive
Paul Farrow
Paul Farrow (born July 17, 1964) is a Wisconsin politician and businessman. The son of former Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Margaret Farrow, he currently serves as the County Executive of Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ...
posted on social media and stated: "Please pray for our community tonight after the horrific events at the Waukesha Christmas Parade."
The attack triggered a backlash against
bail reform. Brooks was released on $1,000 bail two weeks before the attack when he was arrested for allegedly running over a woman with his vehicle during an altercation,
and the attack came at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in courts wanting to reduce jail crowding to reduce risk of infection by giving lower bail requests.
The bail, however, was not a result of any systemic changes to Waukesha's pretrial system; the office of the Milwaukee District Attorney
John T. Chisholm
John Theodore Chisholm (born March 14, 1963) is an American prosecutor and politician who has served as Milwaukee County District Attorney since 2007. A career prosecutor, Chisholm specialized in complex conspiracy prosecutions before his electio ...
, which set his bail, said in a statement that "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",
and said that bail was a result of "human error" of an overworked assistant district attorney. A court commissioner who was also involved in setting the bail was indefinitely reassigned to non-criminal cases.
Notes
References
External links
News Chopper 12's aerial view of holiday parade horror–
WISN-TV
WISN-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Hearst Television, it is the second-oldest television station to remain with the company in all of its various iterations behind f ...
Ring camera shows Waukesha parade suspect's arrest-
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
2021 Waukesha Christmas Parade
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