Waukesha police detectives and witnesses of Sunday's Christmas parade attack said that Darrell Brooks tried to "strike and hurt as many people as possible" as he plowed through the crowd in a "zig zag driving pattern," according to a criminal complaint filed in the Waukesha County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
"The vehicle took an abrupt left turn into the crowd of parade participants. At this point, it was clear to Officer Butryn that this was an intentional act to strike and hurt as many people as possible," Waukesha police Captain Tom Wagner wrote in the criminal complaint. "He observed the vehicle appeared to be intentionally moving side to side, striking multiple people, and bodies and objects were flying from the area of the vehicle."
As Officer Butryn yelled, “Stop, stop the vehicle," Brooks continued past police and barricades, according to the complaint.
"Officer Butryn observed the driver looking straight ahead, directly at him, and it appeared he had no emotion on his face," Wagner wrote.
The complaint also details the five first-degree intentional homicide accounts that Brooks is facing, each of which carries a mandatory life sentence.
All five adult victims died of "multiple blunt force injuries," the Waukesha County Medical Examiner’s office found. A child also died on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deceased victims to six.
At least 62 others were injured in the attack.
A child passed away on Tuesday as a result of injuries sustained when Darrell Brooks allegedly plowed through a Christmas parade on Sunday, according to Waukesha County District Attorney Susan L. Opper.
Six people have now died as a result of the tragedy. Officials previously announced the deaths of Virginia Sorenson, 79, LeAnna Owen, 71, Tamara Durand, 52, Jane Kulich, 52, and Wilhelm Hospel, 81.
Darrell Brooks, the lone suspect in the Waukesha Christmas parade attack, sat hunched over in court on Tuesday as he was charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
Prosecutors said that more charges are likely in the case after a child died of their injuries earlier in the day, bringing the total number of victims to six.
Court Commissioner Kevin Costello set bail at $5 million, citing Brooks’ criminal record, history of jumping bail, and the “shocking” nature of the offense.
"Two detectives opined that this was an intentional act, that the vehicle seemed to swerve into individuals, actually at one point tried to avoid other vehicles,” Costello said. "I have not seen anything like this in my very long career. It seems to be a very strong case for the state."
He is accused of plowing through a crowd of people in downtown Waukesha on Sunday, killing six people and dozens of others, including multiple children in critical condition.
Brooks has been in and out of prison for the past two decades and has a criminal record in Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia.
Waukesha County District Attorney Susan L. Opper read through his long rap sheet in court, which includes counts of battery, obstruction of a police officer, multiple marijuana offenses, bail jumping, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and strangulation in Wisconsin.
Just a few weeks before the parade attack, Brooks allegedly ran over the mother of his child in the same car that he killed six people with on Sunday.
"He struck the mother of his child in the face with a closed fist,” the district attorney told the judge. "Then as she was walking away from him, he intentionally ran her over with his vehicle."
Brooks currently has an active warrant for his arrest in Nevada stemming from a statutory sexual seduction conviction in 2007. He was also arrested in May for domestic battery against a family member in Georgia.
Brooks’ defense attorney briefly said that his client is financially indigent and qualifies for public defender representation.
A conviction for first-degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
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{{#rendered}}Waukesha residents who witnessed the Christmas parade tragedy on Sunday are praising the first responders, law enforcement personnel, and citizens who immediately jumped in to help in the wake of the attack.
"It was an instantaneous help by bystanders and EMTs," Angela O’Boyle, a witness who watched the horror unfold from her balcony, told Fox News. "Everybody was running.”
Darrell Brooks, 39, allegedly killed five people and injured dozens of others when he plowed through the crowd on Sunday.
Police were able to quickly gain control of the scene and Brooks was arrested in a nearby neighborhood about 20 minute later.
"Officers stood near the bodies… to make sure there was no evidence being messed with and for the sake of their families to maintain order as best they could,” Brayden Kowalski, a witness of the tragedy, told Fox News.
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Waukesha residents set up a makeshift memorial in Veterans Park for victims of Sunday’s Christmas parade tragedy.
Five people were killed and dozens were injured when a man driving an SUV plowed through a crowd just a block away from where the makeshift memorial now stands.
Brooks is set to make his first court appearance in Wisconsin later this afternoon.
{{#rendered}}See the moment Darrell Brooks is taken into custody.
The horrific events in Waukesha – which left five dead and dozens injured – have prompted questions about how law enforcement might have failed to protect the Wisconsin town.
In recent days, public attention has shifted to the fact that the suspect who plowed his SUV into a crowd gathered for a Christmas parade on Sunday, Darrell Brooks, was released from jail earlier this month on what Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm called an "inappropriately low" bail amount.
"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," Chisholm’s office said in a statement.
A self-described "progressive," Chisholm has championed left-leaning reforms and previously acknowledged that his proposals could result in a person being let go and committing murder.
"Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody?" he reportedly told the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal in 2007. "You bet. Guaranteed. It's guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach."
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{{#rendered}}Paul Bucher, former Waukesha County District Attorney, provides details about Darrell Brooks' criminal history.
A Milwaukee Black Lives Matter activist said the Christmas parade attack in Waukesha, Wisconsin, appears to signal "the revolution" may have begun.
"I don’t know. Now we’ll have to wait and see because they do have somebody in custody. We may have to wait and see what they say about why this happened," Vaun Mayes said on Facebook Live on Monday. "But it sounds possible that the revolution has started in Wisconsin. It started with this Christmas parade."
Mayes is a well-known activist in Milwaukee. He describes himself as a "Battle rapper, Community activist, Songwriter, Tattoo artist, Militant," in his Twitter bio, which is accompanied by various hashtags, including "#BlackLivesMatter," "#BlackLoveMatters" and "#RBG."
"I said I wasn’t going to speak on no rumors. Y'all are repeating some of the stuff that, you know, that has come up. And I can tell you that the initial person who reached out to me said that they believe that this has to do with the verdict, and so I made an assumption of which side it would be from, but I don’t know," he added in the video, referring to the not-guilty verdict of Kyle Rittenhouse. The video was filmed at the scene of the parade attack.
Mayes did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment on Twitter regarding what he meant by "the revolution." Black Lives Matter also did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on Mayes’ Facebook Live video.
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{{#rendered}}A former teacher, a bank teller and grandmothers are among the five who died in the Waukesha Christmas parade attack.
They leave behind spouses, children and grandchildren.
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Sandra Hollander, who marched in the deadly Waukesha Christmas parade, shares her thoughts on 'Fox & Friends'.
Jane Kulich, 52, who died in the Waukesha attack, was a mother of three with three grandkids, according to Fox6.
{{#rendered}}Pope Francis, in a message sent by Cardinal Pietro Parolin to Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee, is expressing his "spiritual closeness" to those suffering in the wake of the Waukesha attack, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
"He commends the souls of those who died to almighty God's loving mercy and implores the divine gifts of healing and consolation upon the injured and bereaved," the message reportedly read.
"He joins you in asking the Lord to bestow upon everyone the spiritual strength which triumphs over violence and overcomes evil with good," it added.
Videos captured by a homeowner who lives near the scene where the Waukesha Christmas parade attack happened appear to show suspect Darrell Brooks knocking on his door prior to being arrested, asking for help hailing an Uber.
The Ring doorbell camera clips that Daniel Rider shared with NBC News were recorded about 20 minutes after Brooks allegedly drove a vehicle through the parade Sunday, killing five and injuring dozens more. Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson said Monday that he is referring five counts of first-degree intentional homicide against Brooks, who is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday.
"Hey, I called an Uber and I’m supposed to be waiting for it over here but I don’t know when it’s coming, can you call it for me please?" an individual who appears to be Brooks says in one of the videos after knocking on Rider’s door. "I’m homeless."
Rider told NBC News he was watching football at the time of the attack and allowed Brooks inside to let him use his phone.
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More information is coming out Tuesday about the five victims killed in the Waukesha Christmas parade horror. They were identified Monday as Wilhelm Hospel, 81, Virginia Sorenson, 79; LeAnna Owen, 71; Tamara Durand, 52 and Jane Kulich, 52.
Sorensen, Owen, Durand and Hospel were members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies group – and Durand was doing her first show with them on Sunday, her husband, Dave Durand, told the Associated Press.
“She basically danced her way through life,” he said of his wife of eight years, a hospice chaplain and former high school and college cheerleader who was “super excited” for her first performance.
Tamara Durand was a mother of three with one grandchild. She babysat her grandson so her daughter could finish nursing school and volunteered at hospitals and hospices.
Jane Kulich, 52, also died. Local news reports, according to the AP, said she worked for a local branch of Citizens Bank, which issued a statement saying an employee “was walking with our parade float” when she was struck and killed. The bank did not identify the employee.
Hospel reportedly helped the troupe with their shows, while Sorenson, a dance lover who had to give up the hobby years ago after surgery, was the group’s longtime choreographer.
David Sorenson, her husband of nearly 60 years, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “she liked the instructing. She liked the dancing and the camaraderie of the women. She liked to perform.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}"I think the low bail is what made it possible for him to be out there to do that, because if he hadn't bailed out this would never have happened," one local told Fox News when talking about suspect Darrell Brooks.
Hundreds of people gathered Monday night in Waukesha, Wisconsin, for a candlelight vigil to honor those killed in the deadly Christmas parade tragedy a day earlier.
The names of those who died were read by a pair of clergy. Five cross memorials were placed in front of the stage where several city leaders spoke, including Police Chief Dan Thompson and Mayor Shawn Reilly.
"Our community is going to stick together and help each other heal during this process,” Jonathan Schoenfeldt, a Waukesha resident, told Fox News Digital at the vigil. “Everyone’s offering help to each other, whether that means just offering time to vent, through financial means, through material means, just people are here willing to help.”
“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,” added a tearful Amanda Medina Roddy with the Waukesha school district, according to the Associated Press.
The vigil was held at Cutler Park, just a block away from where Darrell E. Brooks Jr., 39, is accused of plowing through a crowd in an SUV on Sunday, killing five people and injuring 48 others.
Four of the five victims who were killed after a red SUV plowed into Christmas parade marchers and spectators in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Sunday evening were members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies club.
“Our group was doing what they loved, performing in front of crowds in a parade,” the group said in a statement Monday morning, according to the Associated Press. “Putting smiles on faces of all ages, filling them with joy and happiness."
On Monday, police released the names of the members. They were Virginia Sorenson, 79, LeAnna Owen, 71, Tamara Durand, 52, and Wilhelm Hospel, 81. A fifth person, Jane Kulich, 52, died, but she was not a member of the club.
Formed in 1984, the Dancing Grannies performs in about 25 parades each year from Memorial Day to Christmas, according to its website.
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{{#rendered}}Coverage for this event has ended.