The Waukesha County district attorney said “there are not words to describe the risk” posed by the man accused of driving through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin and striking dozens.
The reserve police officer radioed in with an alarming report. Two people witnessed a fight, possibly involving knives, outside the Rotary Building at a riverfront park in Waukesha, Wis. Within seconds, several officers said they would head there. The dispatcher told them to hurry. But when the first patrolman arrived, near the spot where kayaks are rented out in less frigid months, whatever fight might have happened was over. “I’m by the Rotary Building and the baseball diamond,” the officer said, his voice calm. “There’s nothing here.” About a minute later, panic crackled across the police scanner. The driver of a maroon S.U.V. was charging through the Waukesha Christmas parade on Main Street, not far from the park, barreling over marching band members and a troupe of Dancing Grannies. He wasn’t stopping. The authorities in Waukesha accused Darrell E. Brooks,39, of killing six people and wounding more than 60 others in the attack at the parade on Sunday evening. They said he had been fleeing a nearby domestic dispute that may have involved a knife — an apparent reference to the earlier incident at the park. Mr. Brooks, who cried at the defense table in his first court appearance on Tuesday afternoon, was charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide and ordered held on $5 million cash bail. Prosecutors said they learned of the sixth death, of an 8-year-old boy, on Tuesday and intended to file another homicide charge. “There are not words to describe the risk that this defendant presents to our community,” Susan L. Opper, the Waukesha County district attorney, said in court, where she referred to accounts by detectives who said Mr. Brooks had seemed to intentionally steer into people. “He was told to stop by police officers,” Ms. Opper said. “They risked their own safety to try to step in front of the car to stop him. Everything was done to get him to stop — and he just simply continued down the roadway, causing death and destruction.” Kevin Costello, the court commissioner who presided over the bail hearing, granted prosecutors’ request for the $5 million bail.
