Waukesha parade news – latest: Police hold press conference after Darrell Brooks’ criminal record revealed

The suspect who plowed his SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha was leaving the scene of a domestic dispute that had taken place just minutes earlier, the city police chief said on Monday.

The man identified as 39-year-old Darrell Brooks had a long history of criminal activities and has been charged with crimes 16 times since 1999.

However, police chief Dan Thompson earlier said there was no evidence the bloodshed on Sunday was a terrorist attack or that the suspect knew anyone in the parade.

He added that the suspect acted alone.

Brooks left the site of the domestic disturbance before officers arrived, and was not being chased by police at the time of the crash, according to the chief quoted by Associated Press, who gave no further details on the dispute.

Police said they were drawing up five charges of intentional homicide against Brooks.

On Sunday, the SUV that went on to kill people gathered for a joyous Christmas parade left 5 dead and over 40 injured. The victims were women aged between 52 to 79 and an 81-year-old man.

Additional reporting by AP

The number of people attending the candlelight vigil in Waukesha increased later on Monday night amid freezing temperatures.

Video footage of the late-night vigil showed mourners gathered to honour the dead after an SUV ploughed into the Christmas parade, killing at least five people and injuring 40 more.

“I noticed him coming through the crowd and I noticed something was not right, and then I seen kind of like just people flying as I stood up,”, Mr Kluka Jr told TODAY. “I’m like ‘Oh no.’ My daughter stood up, I threw her out of the way, then I basically yelled, ‘Get out of the way,’ and my wife got out of the way”.

Watch the full video with Independent TV.

Multiple members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies were among the five killed in the Waukesha Christmas parade attack.

The members were Virginia Sorenson, 79, LeAnna Owen, 71, and Tamara Durand, 52. Wilhelm Hospel, 81 was also closely associated with the group.

The dance group, in a Facebook post after the incident, said it is “devastated” and those who died were “extremely passionate Grannies”.

“The Milwaukee Dancing Grannies are devastated by this terrible tragedy with of loss of life and injuries in the Waukesha Christmas parade,” the group wrote.

“Our group was doing what they loved, performing in front of crowds in a parade putting smiles on faces of all ages, filling them with joy and happiness. While performing the grannies enjoyed hearing the crowds cheers and applause which certainly brought smiles to their faces and warmed their hearts,” it added.

“Those who died were extremely passionate Grannies. Their eyes gleamed…..joy of being a Grannie. They were the glue….held us together. Our hearts are heavy at this most difficult time, as more information and updates become available it will be posted.”

“Please keep them their families, friends, the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies and everyone who lives have forever changed in your thoughts and prayers.”

The Dancing Grannies describes itself on Facebook as a “group of grannies that meet once a week to practice routines for summer and winter parades.” They have been performing in parades since 1984.

Read more about the victims:

The red Ford Escape SUV was captured on video driving straight towards marching cheerleaders and band members at around 40mph, hitting around 20 people and causing the crowd that had assembled to enjoy the 58th Annual Waukesha Holiday Parade to disperse in panic.

Witnesses to the atrocity on Sunday described the car as having accelerated along the parade route and “going from side to side, targeting people”.

The Independent’s Joe Sommerlad writes what happened next.

Darrell Edward Brooks, 39, was taken into custody on Sunday night shortly after a red Ford Escape SUV drove into a the parade in the Wisconsin city, killing five and injuring 48 people, including 18 children aged 3 to 16.

According to criminal record searches, Mr Brooks was a longtime felon whose offending dated back to 1999. He has convictions for drug and firearm possession, strangulation, battery and resisting arrest, has been sentenced to two prison terms, and spent years on probation and under court supervision.

The Independent’s Bevan Hurley has the full background.

Tricia Tucker, 52, saw the whole disaster unfold. She chokes up as she talks to The Independent’s Shelia Flynn describing “literally grabbing kids by their jackets, throwing them into my building – because the doors, when they close, they lock”.

“I’m screaming for everybody who can hear me to run into my place,” she says – as she ran outside to find her youngest daughter, 18, who was home from boarding school for the holidays.”

Hundreds of people are gathering in Cutler Park to remember the victims of suspected attacker Darrell Brooks, who is alleged to have ploughed through a Christmas parade on Sunday.

Five were killed and more than 40 more injured.

Officials in Waukesha, Wisconsin, said the parade, a “Norman Rockwell-type event” that the city had proudly hosted for decades for both residents and visitors, was part of its very fabric, writes The Independent’s Andrew Buncombe.

“With the state, and the nation, already on edge over the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, a proceeding that appears to have divided the nation, some commentators expressed a small degree of relief when police in Waukesha, 50 miles northwest of Kenosha, said they were not treating Sunday’s incident as terrorism.”

Darrell Brooks was wanted in Nevada for failing to obey sex offender laws, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Fox News.

Brooks was convicted of having consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl and conceiving a child in 2006. He was arrested in 2016 for violating the terms of his probation but he never appeared in court, Fox News reported.