The suspect in the Waukesha parade attack allegedly beat his girlfriend at a motel and ran her over with his truck at a gas station in two separate incidents in 2021, Fox News reported Tuesday.
Darrell Brooks, 39, is suspected of slaying at least six people and wounding more than 60 others with his red SUV during a Christmas parade Nov. 21 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Court records allege the incident wasn’t the first time that month that he had used his vehicle to attack other people. Brooks was also accused of running over his girlfriend — the mother of one of his children — at a gas station in Milwaukee on Nov. 2, according to Fox News. (RELATED: WaPo Slammed For Saying Waukesha Massacre Was ‘Caused By A SUV’)
The gas station incident reportedly left the woman with tire marks on her legs from the same red Ford Escape Brooks would allegedly use to hit parade-goers in Waukesha.
Police Chief Dan Thompson speaks at a press conference at the Waukesha City Hall on November 22, 2021 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
Brooks was arrested in late May for misdemeanor battery for striking the same woman at a hotel in Georgia. A witness who was staying at the hotel told police that he heard Brooks attacking his girlfriend through the walls of his room and confronted Brooks before calling the police, according to Fox News.
Brooks’ alleged attack on Nov. 21 had an initial death toll of 5, with injuries for more than 60 others. An 8-year-old boy succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital days later, raising the death toll to six.
The events surrounding the parade attack have caused renewed backlash against efforts to lower or even eliminate cash bail in Wisconsin or elsewhere. Courts set Brooks’ bail at $1,000 following his alleged attack Nov. 2 on his girlfriend, a bail his mother reportedly paid.
The Milwaukee District Attorney’s office admitted to giving Brooks an “inappropriately low” bail. The district has a history of bail reform. District Attorney John Chisholm, one of the leading advocates of lowering or eliminating bail in the district, “guaranteed” in 2007 that the policy would get someone killed.
“Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who’s going to go out and kill somebody?” Chisholm reportedly said in a 2007 interview. “You bet. Guaranteed. It’s guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach.”