Darrell Brooks Jr., who is alleged to have driven the SUV that killed six people and injured many more during last month's Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, faces more charges in another crime. Not surprisingly, most of that coverage has come from local news outlets.
The other incident involves a 30-year-old woman who is the mother of Brooks' daughter and whom he proposed marriage to over the phone last month. Brooks has also been charged with running her over last month with the same car.
According to Bruce Vielmetti of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a new complaint was filed on Monday:
Since then, the victim in the earlier case came forward with additional information, Deputy District Attorney Matthew Torbenson said.
According to a complaint:
After an argument with his girlfriend, he struck her with his fist, and a short time later ran her over at a gas station. She suffered a dislocated left leg and broken right ankle. Brooks was driving the same red Ford Escape that was seen later tearing through the Waukesha parade.
She told police she believed Brooks was going to kill her.
A new complaint filed Monday charges that while he was jailed, from Nov. 5 to Nov. 15, Brooks made several calls to the woman in violation of a court order not to have any contact with her. All jail phone calls are recorded.
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The new complaint charges Brooks with intimidating a victim, intimidating a witness by a person charged with a felony, and felony bail jumping. He remains jailed in Waukesha on $5 million bail in the parade homicide cases.
Vielmetti details many of the phone conversations, which contain expletives and are threatening and intimidating in nature:
His first call was before charges were filed. On Nov. 4, he tried to persuade the 30-year-old woman not to cooperate with authorities. "I’ve come to the realization that I’m not going to leave you. You have my daughter, I know your potential, what you can be. I want to marry you.”
He told her he was facing 60 years and might die in prison. “Think how bad that would make my momma feel. Think of how much pain that would be on her, this is all stuff you wasn’t thinking about when you opened your mouth.”
Over the course of several more phone calls, Brooks became more accusatory and threatening toward the woman. In some calls, he and the victim speak as though the victim is a third person. In one, Brooks tells her, "I hope she realizes the mistake she made, I hope she realizes what she did and I hope she never do anything that stupid ever again.”
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Vielmetti reported about the complaint on Monday, the day it was filed. WISN Channel 12 reported about the new charges on Tuesday, as did Bill Miston with Fox 6.
NBC News' Marlene Lenthang reported on the new charges on Wednesday evening.
CNN and The Washington Post have had particularly controversial reporting on the parade tragedy and Brooks, in that both outlets initially blamed the SUV rather than Brooks.
The most recent reporting from CNN on the incident appears to be Emma Tucker reporting in a piece that was updated on December 3 about how "Low bail for Waukesha suspect ahead of parade tragedy was the result of 'human error': DA." Otherwise, the outlet went pretty quiet about Brooks as of two weeks ago.
The Washington Post published in their December 2 "Morning Mix" article by Jonathan Edwards that "In first interview from jail, suspect accused of killing 6 in Wisconsin parade rampage says he feels 'demonized'," in addition to sharing the Associated Press' coverage of that interview on December 1.
As Guy has covered, and Gabriella Hoffman covered in her column for Townhall, the mainstream media has been relatively quiet on this national story.
Not even President Joe Biden has gone to comfort the families in Waukesha. During the November 29 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pointed out that "obviously, any President going to visit a community requires a lot of assets, requires taking their resources, and it’s not something that I have a trip previewed at this plan- — point in time, but we remain in touch with local officials."
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