Waukesha Christmas Parade: Darrell Brooks, what FOX6 Investigators learned
WAUKESHA, Wis. - This is not the first time Darrell Brooks has been accused of running someone over with his SUV. In fact, it's not even the first time this month.
You have surely seen it by now – the red Ford Escape whose driver tried to escape after plowing through a holiday parade, killing five, and injuring dozens more. What you may not know if just three weeks ago, Brooks was arrested and charged for using that same SUV to run over the mother of his child in a gas station parking lot. The incident left the woman with a bloody face and tire tracks on her leg.
Darrell Brooks
Google Street View shows that same SUV parked in Milwaukee neighborhood not far from Ceiba Chavez.
"That scares me that he’s a couple houses down," Chavez said.
The 39-year-old parade suspect has a felony record that dates back to 1999 when he slashed another man's face with a knife. He has been convicted of drug and gun crimes – strangulation and battery.
In 2011, police say Brooks tried to flee from a traffic stop and the officer feared Brooks was "trying to run him over."
Darrell Brooks
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Last year, Brooks was charged with a series of felonies after firing a gun at his nephew outside a house on N. 19th Street in Milwaukee. After that shooting, Brooks was ordered to have no contact with a number of people, including his mother, Dawn Woods. But when he was arrested again just a couple of weeks ago on new crimes, it was his mother who bailed him out.
The Waukesha Christmas parade person of interest has been identified as Darrell E. Brooks Jr., a Milwaukee man with a criminal history dating back to 1999 – with numerous violent felonies, court records show. (Wisconsin Department of Justice)
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said he is investigating why his office recommended what he calls an "inappropriately low" bail that allowed Brooks to turn a holiday parade into a horrifying nightmare.
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Wisconsin statutes do allow for criminal defendants to be held without bail until trial, but that statute is rarely used. The FOX6 Investigators learned when it is exercised, it is typically only for homicides or sexual assaults.
Brooks is scheduled to make his initial appearance in Waukesha County court on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 23.
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