Parade driver charged with five murder counts
The man who ploughed into a crowd of people during a parade in Wisconsin, killing five and injuring 48, is a career criminal who had been released from jail on Friday after earlier running a woman over with his car.
Darrell Brooks Jr, a sex offender with a long list of previous charges spanning three decades, is now facing five counts of murder, police in the town of Waukesha said yesterday.
The victims, a number of whom were members of a local group called the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, were aged between 52 and 81.
Some 48 other people were taken to hospital including 18 children aged between three and 16. They suffered injuries ranging from scrapes on their faces to broken bones and serious head injuries, and six were in a critical condition on Monday night.
‘‘Lives were lost during the middle of what should have been a celebration,’’ Waukesha’s mayor, Shawn Reilly, said during an emotional media conference in which the police chief fought back tears. The mayor condemned the ‘‘horrible and senseless’’ act.
On Monday evening, local time, police confirmed that Brooks was fleeing from the scene of a domestic dispute which took place just ‘‘minutes’’ earlier.
It has been reported that it was a knife fight.
He sped down a closed-off parade route in Waukesha’s main street just before 5pm, and veered into members of the public who had gathered for the annual Christmas parade.
Police said that he was not being chased, and that one officer on the parade route fired a gunshot at the vehicle, but felt it was unsafe to fire any more in such a crowded area.
Brooks was taken into custody near the crime scene. Pictures on social media showed a red Ford Explorer SUV with a crumpled front.
A part-time rapper, Brooks has appeared in a music video waving a gun, standing in front of the same make, model and colour of the car that was involved in the incident.
According to police scanner audio obtained by news platform Heavy, Brooks Jr had a Ford car key on him when he was detained by officers and his ID was in the car. An image from Google Street View shows the car parked outside his house.
Waukesha police chief Dan Thompson said: ‘‘We are confident he acted alone. There is no evidence that this is a terrorist incident.’’