Crime Waukesha parade crash suspect's bail raises questions

At least 20 people injured after SUV slammed into Wisconsin Christmas parade, authorities say

An SUV sped into a Christmas parade in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, leaving at least 20 people injured, authorities said Sunday. Your browser does not support this video Police in Waukesha, located about 20 miles west of Milwaukee, were urging people to avoid the downtown area. Mayor Shawn Reilly told WITI in Milwaukee that he does not believe there is any current danger to the public. Videos posted to social media, including a live feed of the parade operated by the City of Waukesha, show a red SUV breaking through barriers and speeding into the roadway where the parade was taking place.

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — The suspect in a Christmas parade crash in suburban Milwaukee that killed five people was free on $1,000 bail posted just two days before the deadly event, a fact that is leading to a review of what happened and renewed calls for giving judges more power to set higher bails.

© Provided by Associated Press Toppled chairs line W. Main St. in downtown Waukesha, Wis., after an SUV drove into a parade of Christmas marchers Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. (John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal via AP) © Provided by Associated Press This Nov. 16, 2021, photo provided by the Waukesha County Sheriff Office in Waukesha, Wis., shows Darrell Brooks Jr. Brooks, the SUV driver who plowed into a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee, on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021, killing and injuring multiple people, was leaving the scene of a domestic dispute that had taken place just minutes earlier, Waukesha's police chief said Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. Police Chief Dan Thompson said that there was no evidence the bloodshed Sunday was a terrorist attack or that the suspect, Darrell Brooks Jr., knew anyone in the parade. Brooks acted alone, the chief said. (Waukesha County Sheriff Office via AP)

One pending case against Darrell Brooks Jr. included an allegation that he deliberately hit a woman with his car in early November after a fight. Prosecutors in Milwaukee County on Monday called their bail recommendation “inappropriately low” given the facts of that case and the Sunday crash, and said they would review it.

Joy turns to horror as SUV speeds into Christmas parade

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A joyous scene of marching bands and children dancing in Santa hats and waving pompoms turned deadly in an instant, as an SUV sped through a barricade and into a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee while spectators watched in horror. One video showed a woman screaming, “Oh my God!” repeatedly as a group of young dancers was struck Sunday. A father talked of going “from one crumpled body to the other” in search of his daughter. Members of a “Dancing Grannies” club were among those hit. © Provided by Associated Press A police officer uses a flashlight while looking for evidence in downtown Waukesha, Wis.

© Provided by Associated Press A woman leans on a friend during a prayer vigil at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wis., Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, after an SUV plowed into a Sunday Christmas parade, killing several and injuring dozens of others. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Julius Kim, a defense attorney and former assistant prosecutor, said the bail could easily have been set more than twice as high.

“He was accused of running over the mother of his kid, and to put it at $1,000 strikes me as low,” Kim said. “It could have been an inexperienced attorney who happened to be reviewing cases that day.”

Police said Brooks, 39, was behind the wheel of the SUV that sped through the parade route in Waukesha on Sunday, killing five and injuring 48 others. Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson said Brooks was leaving the scene of a domestic dispute that had taken place just minutes earlier.

What we know about what happened at the Wisconsin Christmas parade

The celebratory sounds of a Wisconsin Christmas parade were interrupted by terrified screams Sunday after a vehicle plowed into participants and spectators gathered for the event in Waukesha, a city about 20 miles west of downtown Milwaukee. © Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel/AP Police investigate at the scene of a crash involving multiple people and injuries at a holiday parade in Waukesha, Wis., on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. (Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP) At least five people were killed and more than 40 were injured in the chaos, city officials said.

Brooks has been charged with crimes 16 times since 1999 and had two outstanding cases against him at the time of the parade disaster. That included resisting or obstructing an officer, reckless endangering, disorderly conduct, bail jumping and battery for the Nov. 2 incident.

© Provided by Associated Press Map of the Waukesha, Wisconsin Christmas parade route and shows where an SUV plowed into parade marchers and bystanders

Thompson said police were going to recommend he face five charges of first degree intentional homicide, which is punishable by life in prison.

Legal experts cautioned that one extreme case should not be reason to push for higher bail amounts that would keep poorer defendants behind bars longer while they await trial.

“We don’t want to have a kneejerk reaction here and say ’Let’s lock up a lot of people pretrial,” said John Gross, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and also director of its Public Defender Project.

Wisconsin Christmas parade live updates: 81-year-old, 79-year-old among the 5 killed

Five people were killed and more than 40 others injured when a car plowed into a Christmas parade in Wisconsin.The suspect, 39-year-old Darrell Brooks, is in custody, authorities said.

© Provided by Associated Press A broken children's stroller lays on W. Main St. in downtown Waukesha, Wis., after an SUV drove into a parade of Christmas marchers Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. (John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal via AP)

“I’m sure the district attorney’s office is going to look back at this and ask themselves, ‘Did we get this wrong?’ said Gross, the law school professor. “This is such an extreme incident ... could they reasonably expect he would get behind a vehicle and run people down on a parade route? What would have alerted you to the capacity he would have had for this kind of violence?”

Some Republicans were quick to jump on the case as an example of a broken legal system.

Republican Rebecca Kleefisch, a former Wisconsin lieutenant governor who is running for governor in 2022, called the killings “yet another avoidable tragedy that occurred because a violent career criminal was allowed to walk free and terrorize our community.”

And Republican state Rep. Cindi Duchow said she was reintroducing a constitutional amendment that would change the bail process in Wisconsin to allow judges to consider a defendant’s danger to the community when setting bail. Judges currently are only allowed to consider the possibility that defendants might not show up for a court appearance when setting bail.

Driver to face homicide charges for deaths at Wisconsin Christmas parade

Driver to face homicide charges for deaths at Wisconsin Christmas paradeBy Brendan O'Brien and Cheney Orr

© Provided by Associated Press Neil Stolsmark shows a video a friend had taken as a vehicle hit two parade participants in front of his business the day before during a Christmas parade, in downtown Waukesha, Wis., Monday, Nov. 22, 2021. The elderly woman on the video died in the incident. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

“He tried to run over his girlfriend with his car -- that’s attempted murder,” Duchow said. “If you’re a danger to society, you should have to work hard to get out.”

Thompson, the police chief, said that there was no evidence the bloodshed Sunday was a terrorist attack or that Brooks knew anyone in the parade. Brooks acted alone, the chief said.

Brooks had left the site of the domestic disturbance before officers arrived, and was not being chased by police at the time of the crash, according to the chief, who gave no further details on the dispute.

© Provided by Associated Press Police tape cordons off a street in Waukesha, Wis., after an SUV plowed into a Christmas parade hitting multiple people Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Brooks is an aspiring rapper. On a YouTube page, a video that has since been removed showed him rapping in front of a red Ford SUV resembling the one at the parade. The rapper uses the name MathBoi Fly on his Twitter and other social media accounts.

'Mama, are you OK?' In Waukesha, minutes of terror recounted

Hours before it started, they were already there — people sitting on lawn chairs or wrapped in blankets, awaiting an event the city's mayor described as straight out of Norman Rockwell. The Waukesha Christmas Parade, a tradition in its Milwaukee suburb for six decades, was to be particularly special this time around after its pandemic-related cancellation last year. Stepping off a few blocks to the east, parade participants were in the holiday spirit, too. Members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, a crowd favorite on the Wisconsin parade circuit, donned white fur hats and waved white pompoms as they danced down Main Street to “Jingle Bell Rock.

On Sunday, a joyous scene of marching bands and children dancing in Santa hats and waving pompoms gave way in an instant to screams and the sight of crumpled bodies as the SUV sped through barricades and struck dancers, musicians and others in the community of 72,000.

© Provided by Associated Press Neil Stolsmark looks out the window of his business in downtown Waukesha, Wis., Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, a day after an SUV plowed into a Christmas parade, killing several and injuring dozens of other people. A video taken by one of his friends shows a vehicle fatally hitting an elderly person. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Police identified those killed as Virginia Sorenson, 79; LeAnna Owen, 71; Tamara Durand, 52; Jane Kulich, 52; and Wilhelm Hospel, 81. Sorenson, Owen and Durand were members the Dancing Grannies club, and Hospel helped out with the group.

© Provided by Associated Press Items lie in the middle of a street in Waukesha, Wis., Monday, Nov. 22. 2021, where investigations continue after a vehicle slammed into a holiday parade the day before killing several people and injuring multiple others. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

“It looked like dummies being thrown in the air,” said Nicole Schneiter, who was there with her children and grandchildren. “It took a second to register, like, ‘Is that what we really just saw?’ And then you looked in the road and there were just people laying in the road.”

© Provided by Associated Press A song is played as messages on a cross is seen during a candle light vigil in downtown Waukesha, Wis., Monday, Nov. 22, 2021 after an SUV plowed into a Sunday Christmas parade killing multiple people and injuring dozens. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps

At least nine patients, most of them children, were in critical condition Monday at two hospitals, and seven others were reported in serious condition.

Experts Think Plea Deal Possible For Man Who Killed 6 When Driving SUV Into Waukesha Parade

Darrell Brooks Jr. is charged five counts of first-degree intentional homicide, a total expected to increase to six after another victim died Tuesday. More charges are likely to come, Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper said. The most recent victim was 8-year-old Jackson Sparks. The other five, ranging in age from 52 to 81, were pronounced deceased just hours after the incident. As of Wednesday, at least 16 people are still in the hospital being treated, representatives from area hospitals said.

© Provided by Associated Press Orlando Magic and Milwaukee Bucks players, along with fans, observe a moment of silence for the victims of the Waukesha Parade incident, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Hundreds gathered at a downtown park Monday night in Waukesha, Wisconsin, for a candlelight vigil in honor of those lost and hurt in a deadly Christmas parade crash a day earlier. A pair of clergy solemnly read the names of those who died. Volunteers handed out sandwiches, hot chocolate, and candles at the vigil, which was attended by interfaith leaders and elected officials.

“We are parents. We are neighbors. We are hurting. We are angry. We are sad. We are confused. We are thankful. We are all in this together. We are Waukesha Strong,” said a tearful Amanda Medina Roddy with the Waukesha school district.

The chief said that police weren't pursuing Brooks before he entered the parade route, but n officer did fire a shot to try to stop him. The officer stopped firing because of the danger to others. Brooks was not injured.

Mayor Shawn Reilly described the parade as a “Norman Rockwell-type” event that “became a nightmare.”

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Bauer reported from Madison, Wis., and Condon reported from New York. Associated Press writers Kathleen Foody in Chicago, Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed.