UNION CITY, Ga. — The man accused of driving through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin, killing at least six people, on Nov. 21 was arrested in Georgia earlier this year.
Darrell Brooks, 39, was arrested in Union City, Georgia on May 27, 2021 at the Country Hearth Inn on Shannon Parkway after he and a woman identified as his girlfriend called police on another guest at the hotel. According to a police report from the Union City Police Department, Brooks called police saying a man flashed a firearm while they were having an argument early that morning.
But, Brooks wound up in handcuffs after police learned the initial argument started after the man confronted Brooks when he said he heard Brooks hitting his girlfriend repeatedly. In the report, the responding officer wrote he observed Brook’s girlfriend’s face was swollen and had dark discoloration around her eyes. The girlfriend told officers Brooks hit her earlier that day.
He was taken to the East Point Jail and charged with a domestic violence battery charge.
Brooks’ criminal history includes other instances of domestic violence. In Wisconsin, he was accused of punching and running over a woman who told police she was the mother of his child, NBC reports. According to NBC, the documents said police noticed dried blood on her face, a swollen lip and tire tracks on her left pants leg.
Brooks also had an outstanding failure to appear warrant in Nevada from 2016 where, according to NBC, “he was scheduled to answer a charge that he failed to notify authorities about a move, as he was required to do because he was on the state sex offender registry, police in the city of Sparks said.
Brooks was convicted in 2006 of felony statutory sexual seduction for impregnating a 15-year-old girl, police said.”
Those are just a few of the long list of Brooks’ charges related to violence across several states.
The court commissioner who presided over the bail hearing, Kevin Costello, gave Brooks a $5 million bail saying, “It’s an extraordinarily serious case, with an extraordinary history of this gentleman — of fleeing, of hurting people, of not following court orders, not following criminal laws, not following just your societal norms.”
"It's an extraordinarily, uh, serious case with an extraordinary history of this gentlemen, um, of fleeing, of hurting people, of not following court orders, not following, um, criminal laws, not following just your societal norms."
Before Brooks’ plowed through the parade marchers in Waukesha, court records show police have evidence that he had options for another path. He could have turned down a side street but didn’t. Once he passed it, he never touched the brakes — barreling through and leaving bodies in his wake, according to a criminal complaint. No motive has been given for the crash that injured more than 60 people but it may not matter if he goes to trial. Experts said the evidence strongly supports intentional homicide charges that would mean life in prison. His attorneys cautioned people not to judge the case before all facts are known.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.