A ‘Comfort and Joy’-themed Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin turned deadly on Sunday after an SUV zoomed through the crowd and struck participants and spectators, killing at least five and injuring more than forty. One children’s hospital is currently treating 15 pediatric patients, according to a New York Times report.
“A person of interest” is in custody. Multiple outlets reported Monday morning that the perpetrator may have been fleeing the scene of another crime – a knife fight – although details are sparse.
Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News that the preliminary assessment of investigators, based on video evidence and interviews, is the driver was not aiming to hit the parade but rather was speeding through the route to flee an earlier incident.
Authorities spent the night scouring social media and other digital platforms associated with the person of interest, who remains in custody. So far, investigators have no reason to believe there is any connection to radicalization, extremism or the ongoing debate about the verdict delivered in the Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial last week elsewhere in Wisconsin, the sources said.
The red SUV broke through barricades at approximately 4:40 PM, about forty minutes after the parade in the Milwaukee suburb began.
The Washington Post reports:
In video of the parade streamed by the city to its Facebook page, the SUV is seen speeding down the parade route seconds after a marching band playing “Jingle Bells” had passed. Onlookers screamed at the sight of the vehicle barreling down Main Street, whizzing past a Jeep that was outfitted in Christmas lights, as a police officer chased the SUV on foot.
A police officer opened fire at the rogue vehicle, although it’s not clear how law enforcement was able to stop the driver.
More from The Post:
[Pastor David] Simmons said he and others who were going in and out of the church to stay warm or use the toilets saw the SUV emerge from the right-hand side of the street and heard the driver “[honk] his horn really vociferously, which looked at least to us like he was trying to get people out of the way.”
“He could’ve been going down the middle of the road and he was not,” Simmons added. “As he swerved and headed downtown and picked up speed, he was heading down to the park, where the parade was more tightly packed. Most of us assumed that he would get down a block or two and then the police would pull him over onto another side road.”
“It didn’t seem like somebody was trying to cause a mass casualty incident; it felt like somebody was being [an] irresponsible, dangerous jerk.”
Another witness who spoke with The Post said the driver looked “calm and composed.” But the damage he wrought was catastrophic.
More from The AP:
“There were pompoms and shoes and spilled hot chocolate everywhere. I had to go from one crumpled body to the other to find my daughter,” Corey Montiho, a Waukesha school district board member, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “My wife and two daughters were almost hit. Please pray for everybody. Please pray.”
The Milwaukee Dancing Grannies posted on its Facebook page early Monday that some of its members were among the dead. The group’s profile describes them as a “group of grannies that meet once a week to practice routines for summer and winter parades.”
“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,” the post said.
“Those who died were extremely passionate Grannies. Their eyes gleamed … joy of being a Grannie. They were the glue … held us together.”
“Today our community faced horror and tragedy in what should have been a community celebration,” said Mayor Shawn Reilly. “I’m deeply saddened to know that so many in our community went to a parade but ended up dealing with injury and heartache.”
