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A Community's Nightmare: The 2021 Waukesha Parade Attack · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Waukeshaw Milwaukee, the third most populated county in the state
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of Wisconsin and also known as Guitar Town because they
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: are the home of Les Paul, pioneer of the electric guitar,
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  Speaker 1: and they have a fantastic annual tradition. Each year, the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: city hosts a festive Christmas parade to showcase local town
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: tallent community projects and to mark the official start of
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  Speaker 1: the holiday season. This tradition has gone on for over
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  Speaker 1: sixty years and only ever took a break in twenty
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: twenty because, of course, of the pandemic. Twenty twenty one
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  Speaker 1: saw the much awaited return of the parade, and it
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  Speaker 1: came with a focus bringing the community back together after
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  Speaker 1: the uncertain and troubling times that we had all just
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  Speaker 1: been through. The theme that year really cemented the feeling
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  Speaker 1: and the hope that everyone had that the pandemic was
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  Speaker 1: finally behind us. The theme was comfort and Joy. But
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  Speaker 1: around four to thirty on the evening of the Christmas
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  Speaker 1: Parade in twenty twenty one, a red Ford Escape SUV
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  Speaker 1: came hurtling down the street. A police officer, noticing that
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  Speaker 1: the car was heading straight for the parade, tried to
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  Speaker 1: stop it. He first banged on the hood and tried
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  Speaker 1: to get the driver's attention, and then he opened fire.
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  Speaker 1: But the driver drove on, bursting through the barricades and
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  Speaker 1: swa wringing the car side to side, causing the number
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of hit victims to rise much higher than it would
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  Speaker 1: have been if he had only driven straight through. As
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  Speaker 1: the crowd scrambled, some of them screaming, some of them
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  Speaker 1: crying in pain and shock, the driver sat in his seat,
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  Speaker 1: calm and composed, seemingly oblivious to the growing carnage around
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: him that he had just caused. That man was thirty
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: nine year old Darrel Edward Brooks Junior, a born and
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  Speaker 1: raised Milwaukee residence with the troubling past. His criminal record
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  Speaker 1: dated back to nineteen ninety nine, when Darrel was only seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: and every year seemed to bring with it a new entry.
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  Speaker 1: Part of the reason behind Daryl's extensive criminal record came
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  Speaker 1: from his mental health. He'd been diagnosed as having bipolar
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: disorder at the age of twelve and had been living
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  Speaker 1: with it ever since. After his diagnosis, Darrell dropped out
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  Speaker 1: of high school and was arrested shortly after for d
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: anchel battery. This was a felony and got Daryl a
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: two year sentence in jail, with a three year probationary
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: period to follow. In two thousand and six, he was
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  Speaker 1: sentenced to twelve to thirty six months for sexual seduction
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  Speaker 1: after he got a fifteen year old girl pregnant in Sparks, Nevada.
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  Speaker 1: A warrant from Sparks for further sexual charges was outstanding
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  Speaker 1: for his arrest at the time that he was on
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  Speaker 1: his way to the parade in twenty twenty one. By
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty, Darrel's crimes had turned more violent. He was
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: arrested and charged with second degree recklessly endangering safety and
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  Speaker 1: for being a felon in possession of a firearm after
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: an incident where he allegedly shot at his nephew. Darrel
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  Speaker 1: had supposedly reached for the gun after a dispute over
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  Speaker 1: a cell phone. Darrel was actually still waiting to go
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  Speaker 1: to trial for this case, but the ongoing pandemic had
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  Speaker 1: stretched the court system and his trial was delayed. He
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: was released on a reduced bail for only five hundred
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  Speaker 1: dollars at the beginning of twenty twenty one. Only a
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: few months after that, Darrell was in trouble with the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: law again. This time a witness had overheard Darrell beating
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: up his ex girlfriend in the room next door at
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  Speaker 1: the Country Hearth Inn. Allegedly, during this assault, Darrell flashed
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: his gun to his ex girlfriend and warning, but the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: witness that reported the incident didn't see that for himself. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: the witness confronted Darrel, which resulted in another arrest and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Darrel spending another night behind bars. Darrel was due in
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: court for this case as well, but he would be
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: arrested again before that could happen. On November tecond, twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty one, Darrel attacked his ex girlfriend yet again. This
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: time he punched her and then ran her over with
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  Speaker 1: his car in a chilling foreshadowing of what was to come.
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  Speaker 1: Only weeks later, he was arrested and charged again with
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  Speaker 1: second degree recklessly and dangering safety, but he posted his
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  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars bail and was out On November nineteenth,
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  Speaker 1: Now only forty eight hours stood before him and the
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  Speaker 1: parade where he would turn so many lives upside down.
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  Speaker 1: After plowing through the crowds at the parade, Darrell abandoned
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  Speaker 1: his truck and fled the scene. On foot, He slipped
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  Speaker 1: through the cracks in the resulting chaos and managed to
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  Speaker 1: make it away unseen. He then knocked on a random
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: front door and pretended he was homeless. The homeowner who
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  Speaker 1: answered the door took pity on Darrell. The homeowner hadn't
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  Speaker 1: heard about the attack on the parade just yet, and
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: so he trusted Darrell. He invited him in, offered him
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  Speaker 1: his phone so that Darrell could call an uber, made
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  Speaker 1: him a sandwich, and let him borrow a coat, But
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  Speaker 1: he realized that something was wrong when the police showed
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: up on his doorstep. After that, the homeowner asked Darrell
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  Speaker 1: to leave, and Darrell surrendered himself to the police without
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  Speaker 1: a fight. Residents and law enforcement were left in total
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  Speaker 1: disbelief and shock over what happened. They first, just like
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the homeowner had that evening, tried to give Darrell the
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  Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was possible that this
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: had all been an accident. Maybe he'd been running from
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  Speaker 1: someone or something and had driven into the crowd in
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  Speaker 1: a panic. It certainly looked like he didn't actually know
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  Speaker 1: any one in the parade and therefore had not been
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  Speaker 1: targeting any one in particular. But it was Darrell's own
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  Speaker 1: actions that spoke out against him. Upon entering the crowd,
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  Speaker 1: Darrell had swung his car from side to side in
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  Speaker 1: a zigzag pattern, and the prosecution argued that that could
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  Speaker 1: only mean one thing. Darrell had intentionally been trying to
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  Speaker 1: hit as many people as possible. Five people died at
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  Speaker 1: the scene, most of them being women who had been
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  Speaker 1: in the parade as part of a dancing group called
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  Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies. Sixty two people were injured, and
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  Speaker 1: around seventeen children were among them. The final nail in
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  Speaker 1: Darrell's coffin came days later, when an eight year old
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  Speaker 1: bo succumb to his injuries. In court, Darrel and his
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: family tried to defend his actions. They argued that Daryl
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  Speaker 1: wasn't responsible for his actions because of his bipolar disorder.
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  Speaker 1: Daryl's grandmother testified that his condition was going untreated because
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  Speaker 1: Darrel didn't have insurance to cover his medical bills, but
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  Speaker 1: the courts disagreed. Speaking with tears in her eyes, Waukeshaw
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  Speaker 1: Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Doro addressed the defendant. There are
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  Speaker 1: times when evil people do bad things. There's no medication
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  Speaker 1: or treatment for a heart that is bent on evil.
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  Speaker 1: Some people, unfortunately choose a path of evil, and mister Brooks,
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  Speaker 1: I think you are one of those people. The judge
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  Speaker 1: then imposed six consecutive life sentences, one for each and
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  Speaker 1: every victim that Daryl killed that day, without the possibility
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  Speaker 1: of parole. For each of those sixty one counts of
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  Speaker 1: reckless endangerment, a charge that Darrell had already faced twice before,
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  Speaker 1: or she sentenced him to seven hundred sixty two years
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  Speaker 1: in prison with three hundred five years of unsupervised parole
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  Speaker 1: for the six counts of hit and run that came
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  Speaker 1: from the six victims he'd killed. She gave him a
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  Speaker 1: one hundred fifty year sentence that was to run concurrently
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  Speaker 1: with the seven hundred sixty two that he was to
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  Speaker 1: serve for the previous charges. The sentencing was read to
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  Speaker 1: massive applause in the courtroom. With a number of years
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  Speaker 1: Darrell was to serve and with no possibility that he
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  Speaker 1: would ever be paroled. The community believed that justice had
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: been done, but there was still kindness to spread so
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: that the healing could truly begin for those actions his
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: actions that day. A GoFundMe campaign raised an initial nine
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  Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars for victims of the attack. A further
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  Speaker 1: one point eight million dollars was raised for the United
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  Speaker 1: for Wickshaw Community Fund, and local contractors volunteered their services
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  Speaker 1: to install wheelchair ramps for those left injured after the
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  Speaker 1: attack for free. Just four months later, and the total
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: amount raised to help the victims and their families stood
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  Speaker 1: at six point two million dollars, proving just how eager
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  Speaker 1: the community and the country were to do what they
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  Speaker 1: could to help ease the pain and suffering. That is
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: ten Minute Murder for today brief and binge able true crime.
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  Speaker 1: My name is Joe. I'm the host, and thank you
• 9:33
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• 9:35
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  Speaker 1: pop up, or you can use in the show notes.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I've got some links for you there. And I need
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to tell you there's something I did not mention in
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that episode, the absolutely unhinged behavior of Darryl Brooks in
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the courtroom. He was trying to represent himself and doing
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: a very poor job of it. It was insane. It's
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: literally insane. He's got mental health problems, and I'm no
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: way making light of that. I'm not sure how they
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: allowed it to go on so long, but I didn't
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: want to inject that into the story because I thought
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it would kind of derail this story a little bit.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: But I will post some of those clips of his
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: behavior in the courtroom. I'll put them on social media.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: So go ahead and follow any place that you use
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: social media and you'll see those clips. But it's completely
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: shocking if you haven't seen it already, which by there's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a chance that you have. But if you haven't seen
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: it already, you're going to be shocked by the behavior
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: that he was getting away with for a time. All right,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that's going to do it. That is your episode for
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: it today. Oh I didn't mentioned the website. If you've
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: got any questions about the podcast, if you'd like to
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  Speaker 1: get in touch with me, all the information about ten
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  Speaker 1: Minute Murder lives at ten Minute Murdered. You can go
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: there for all the things. And now your episode is complete.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: If you're off to binge the next one, don't let
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: me stop. You move right along. If not, I hope
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you have a great day. Thanks bye,