Darrell Brooks Waukesha Parade Court Hearing

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Today was the court hearing for defendant Darrell Brooks, who was identified as the driver in the Waukesha parade run on Nov. 21st, 2021.

Waukesha County District Attorney Sue Opper called Police Detective Thomas Casey to the stand to testify the information he had on what the Waukesha Police Department has investigated.

Thomas Casey was a traffic control officer during the Christmas Parade along Main St. There were hundreds of police surrounding the route of the parade, along with barricades and signs informing vehicles that the roads of the route were close, starting at 3:15 p.m.

At 4:35 p.m., Casey heard the radio call for backup to the park due to a knifing incident. He later observed a red Ford Escape with its horn beeping down the road. The Ford turned onto the middle of the road during the parade, and drove into Casey as he urged the vehicle to stop. It continued westward down Main St.

Casey chased the vehicle on foot, and did not observe the vehicle strike any participants when he lost sight of the vehicle at Barstow St.; however, he did positively identify Darrell Brooks as the driver in the red Ford Escape.

“I broadcasted on the radio that a vehicle had entered the parade route, specifically a Ford Escape, and that we needed squads and emergency response to try to stop it,” Casey said.

There were multiple officers that also tried to stop the vehicle before it hit 61 people from behind, six people receiving fatal injuries. Other victims have road rash, skull fracture and internal injuries.

The police department possesses 65 different files capturing the vehicle’s path down Main St. from citizens, businesses and city cameras.

The vehicle picks up at a faster speed when it drives past Barstow St. Between Barstow and Broadway, the vehicle begins to zig zag through the crowd of the participants of the parade, hitting its first victim.

“When I saw him, he was doing maybe five miles an hour,” Casey said. ‘When he was at the west end of the route, he was maybe going maybe 40 or 50 miles an hour.”

The vehicle suddenly swerves to the left, and continued toward the Waukesha band, running over 10 band participants and spectators.

“It appears the vehicle is intentionally aiming for people,” Casey said. “At one point in the video, you can see the vehicle running over people.”

The vehicle continues down Main St., next striking a mother and daughter.

When the vehicle started toward the Blazers baseball team, it made contact with a young child and adult that were pushed between a pick-up truck and thrown ahead into multiple other participants in the road. Ten baseball players were injured, and one suffered from corneal cerebral traumatic induce and died.

When the vehicle hit the five-points area of Waukesha, it struck 15 members of the dance team.

The Milwaukee Dancing Grannies were at the 300th block of Main St. when the vehicle hit zig zagged and hitting and killing 4 members of the group.

According to police, at no point did Brooks stop the vehicle and check on the people he hit. When he got to the he 400th block, it hit another group of 19 people, and continued westbound.

Another officer encountered the red Ford Escape, and fired at it three times. The vehicle did not stop, and continued to West Ave. and then turns on Prospect Ave. The police investigated that when the vehicle exited the parade route, it pulled into 338 Maple Ave where Brooks got out of the vehicle and runs southbound. He was taken into custody at 552 Elizabeth St. with an odor of burned marijuana.

“I did not mean to kill anybody,” Brooks said.

The Wisconsin State Patrol Mechanical Inspection Unit looked over the vehicle Brooks was driving and observed there was nothing wrong with the vehicle to make it perform abnormally.

Court Commissioner Kevin M. Costello believes there is ample evidence on all six counts of intentional homicide, binding Derrell Brooks to trial on February 11th.

A criminal complaint was later added when a child also died in the hospital on November 23, 2021 from craniocerbral injuries from blunt force trauma to the head.