TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A
Brooks is also facing charges in a
pending case from July 2020, when
he was charged with two counts of
second-degree recklessly endanger-
ing someone else’s safety and an-
other count of possessing a gun de-
spite being convicted of a felony.
Court documents describing po-
lice officers’ past encounters with
Brooks say he was seen in a maroon,
2010 model Ford Escape — a vehicle
that matches the description of the
car used in the parade crash.
On Sunday in Waukesha, an SUV
broke through barricades about
4:40 p.m. local time, about 40 min-
utes after the event began. Several
witnesses described how the festivi-
ties turned terrifying in an instant.
Authorities said a police officer
shot at the SUV in an attempt to
stop it. No bystanders were in-
jured by the gunfire, police said,
and they do not think any shots
were fired from the vehicle.
First responders would later de-
scribe a terrible scene. Some of
them were at the parade with their
families, Waukesha Fire Chief Ste-
ven Howard said, and they left to
tend to victims. Others were mili-
tary veterans, and they compared
what they saw on the street to
their time in combat.
“Just carnage, likening it to a war
zone,” Howard said. “There were
adults, children that were injured.... But what stands out in my mind
from conversations is we have peo-
ple with military backgrounds who
likened it to a war zone.”
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Firozi, Thebault and Devlin Barrett
reported from Washington. Holly Bailey
and Mark Guarino in Waukesha; Mark
Berman, Marisa Iati, Alice Crites and
Andrea Salcedo in Washington;
Annabelle Timsit and Jennifer Hassan in
London; Pietsch in Seoul; and Rachel
Pannett in Sydney contributed to this
report.grandmother of three who was
passing out candy and walking
alongside a float for the bank where
she worked, her husband said.
On the morning after the pa-
rade, remnants of the chaos lit-
tered the city’s streets. Stray
gloves, overturned chairs and
wrapped candy were scattered on
the grassy parkway where families
had gathered to take in the parade,
with its “Comfort and Joy” theme.
An image from the aftermath
showed a jogging stroller, decorat-
ed with red and silver tinsel, aban-
doned and missing a wheel.
Yellow crime tape snapping in the
wind was unfurled for blocks past
the worst of the destruction. Local
and state police officers walked the
area, which includes several apart-
ment buildings and residences
above the Main Street businesses.
Later Monday evening, a can-
dlelight vigil in frigid tempera-
tures drew hundreds of mourners
to a downtown park. Among them
was Bob Salb, whose 9-year-old
granddaughter belongs to Xtreme
Dance Team, a troupe that had at
least one member hit by the SUV.
Salb said watching the car bar-
rel into the crowd was like “seeing
evil manifested.” His family mem-
bers scattered into stores, seeking
safety. Some carried wounded at-
tendees with them. He said he’s
still processing “seeing so many
bodies on the ground.”
“The vigil is helping counteract
the pure evil,” Salb said.
Mary LaChappelle, 57, and her
daughter Jennifer, 23, said they
wanted to be at the vigil to hear
words of comfort and be with oth-
ers who were processing grief.
Jennifer LaChappelle had a link
to one of the victims: Tamara Du-
rand, a 52-year-old therapist at Rog-
ers Behavioral Health. Jennifer,
who had received treatment at Rog-
ers, described Durand as a buoyant
spirit who was quirky and positive.
“We had recently played two
truths and a lie. Her truth was that
she was going to be one of the
Dancing Grannies,” she said.
Durand was making her debut
in the beloved troupe when she
was killed Sunday.
As the LaChappelles held red ta-
pered candles for the vigil, mother
and daughter agreed that Sunday’s
tragedy makes them reflect on how
fragile — and precious — life is.
About 20 miles east, at a two-
story white frame home in Mil-
waukee — Brooks’s last known
address — no one answered a
knock at the door earlier Monday.
Out-of-state rental cars lined the
street as reporters and photogra-
phers flocked to the residence. A
neighbor who declined to be named
said that he’d seen a red SUV like the
one in the parade footage parked
outside the house on occasion but
that he didn’t know who drove it or
much about who lived at the home.
A person who answered the
phone at a number associated
with Brooks’s address hung up
Monday when a reporter identi-
fied herself. It is unclear whether
Brooks has an attorney in the
Waukesha case, and a lawyer rep-
resenting him in other cases saidThe Waukesha County District
Attorney’s Office said it expected to
file the charges Tuesday afternoon.
Thompson said police are “con-
fident” that the suspect acted
alone, and he said there is “no
evidence this is a terrorist inci-
dent.” Police have “no information
that Brooks knew anybody in the
parade,” he said.
Officials have not commented
on a possible motive. The FBI said
it was assisting local authorities in
the investigation.
Brooks had a criminal record
that began long before Sunday’s
havoc, including charges of do-
mestic abuse, violent behavior
and an allegation that he used a
vehicle as a weapon weeks before
the parade. He had been in jail
because of that case, and he was
released on bail last week, which
has prompted an internal review
at the Milwaukee District Attor-
ney’s Office.
The law enforcement official,
who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to discuss the initial
stages of the investigation, told
The Washington Post that investi-
gators have not found anything
tying the parade incident to ter-
rorism or ideology. It appears that
the main intent was to escape the
police from the prior incident, the
official said.
Officials said 22 people were
taken by fire crews to six hospitals.
Police and bystanders transported
others to medical facilities. One
hospital said Monday that 18 chil-
dren, ages 3 to 16, had been
brought to its emergency depart-
ment, some suffering from “seri-
ous head injuries.” Ten were ad-
mitted to the pediatric intensive
care unit, and the patients include
three sets of siblings.
“Our community needs to heal
from physical injury and emotion-
al trauma and what was taken
from us by this senseless act,”
Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly
said during the Monday briefing.
“What we do today and in the days
ahead is what will define us as a
city, and I know we will come
together and help Waukesha heal.”
The violence shook the city of
70,000 days before Thanksgiving as
residents exulted in their first Christ-
mas parade since 2019, partaking in
what Reilly described as a “Norman
Rockwell type” of holiday tradition
that goes back nearly six decades.
“Last night, that parade became
a nightmare,” he said.
Some of the victims were per-
forming with the Milwaukee
Dancing Grannies, a group of
grandmothers with pompoms and
sparkly costumes who participate
in parades throughout the region.
Sorenson, a registered nurse and
grandmother of six, was a longtime
member and the group’s instructor,
her husband told the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel. Durand, who
watched her grandchild four days a
week so her daughter could attend
college classes, had recently joined
and was dancing in her first pa-
rade, according to her husband.
Kulich was a mother of three and
WAUKESHA FROM A
Suspect in Wis. assault
is known to legal system
es against someone who had a child
with the defendant.
Brooks was booked into the Mil-
waukee County jail on Nov. 3. He was
released on Nov. 16, several days after
paying a $1,000 cash bail, walking
out five days before the parade.
The office of John Chisholm,
the Milwaukee County district at-
torney, said Monday that it was
“conducting an internal review” of
the bail recommendation it made
in Brooks’s case. That bail recom-
mendation “was inappropriately
low in light of the nature of the
recent charges and the pending
charges against Mr. Brooks,” the
office said in a statement Monday.
Chisholm’s office did not im-
mediately respond to questions
about who decided the bail
amount and whether officials were
reviewing any other bail recom-
mendations as a result of this case.ities that he showed up at her
Milwaukee motel on Nov. 2, yelled
at her and took her phone before
driving off, according to a criminal
complaint.
The woman walked toward a gas
station and Brooks followed her, the
complaint said. After she refused to
get in his car, the complaint said,
Brooks “struck [her] in the face.”
When the woman walked away,
Brooks “ran [her] over with his ve-
hicle” while she was in the parking
lot, the complaint said. Officers lat-
er said the woman had dried blood
on her face, a swollen lip and “tire
tracks on her left pants leg,” accord-
ing to the complaint dated Nov. 5.
Brooks was charged with sec-
ond-degree recklessly endangering
someone’s safety, battery and disor-
derly conduct. All three counts, the
complaint said, were acts of domes-
tic abuse, which can include offens-he will not do so in this case.
Brooks’s past leading to the pa-
rade on Sunday includes run-ins
with police and the justice system
dating back more than two decades.
His criminal history apparently
stretches to at least 1999, when he
was charged with battery and later
convicted, court records and fil-
ings show. Following years
brought more cases, including two
that apparently remain open
against Brooks in Milwaukee, both
accusing him of acting violently.
He has pleaded not guilty in
both. Joseph Domask, Brooks’s at-
torney for both cases, declined to
comment on them.
The most recent came just weeks
before the parade, when Brooks
was accused of domestic abuse and
using his car as a weapon.
A 31-year-old woman who had a
child with Brooks had told author-CHENEY ORR/REUTERS
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