A US judge broke down in tears as she sentenced a man who killed six people by deliberately driving into them at a Christmas parade to life in prison without parole.
Darrell Brooks Junior, 40, ploughed his red Ford Escape through police barricades and into the annual parade in downtown Waukesha, Milwaukee, on November 21 last year, following a fight with his ex-girlfriend.
Six people were killed, including eight-year-old Jackson Sparks who was marching with his baseball team, and three members of a dance group known as the Dancing Grannies. Dozens of others were injured.
Before sentencing Brooks on Wednesday, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow described the case as “heart-wrenching” and “unlike anything that I have ever been a part of”.
Breaking down in tears she reflected on the trial, saying: “It’s hard not to think about what I watched, and not have this reaction.
“Those are images that frankly kept me up at night, that I saw over and over and over.
“I now understand why one of the girls called her aunt and said ‘my entire team’s dead’, because that’s what it looked like,” she added. “It was horrific.”
She paid tribute to the “brave” victims and witnesses who testified in the trial, and spoke of the multiple opportunities Brooks had had to stop while carrying out his attack.
”This wasn’t one isolated person that he could claim ‘I didn’t know I struck someone’,” she said. “This was driving over people.”
She quoted one witness who had said “the SUV went over people like they were big old speedbumps”, and others who said the vehicle “was accelerating, not stopping”.
Brooks was given life sentences for each of the six people he killed plus another symbolic 1,067 years, for the 70 other charges he faced.
"Frankly, Mr. Brooks, no one is safe from you," Ms Dorow said. "This community can only be safe if you are behind bars for the rest of your life...You left a path of destruction, chaos, death, injury and panic as you drove seven or so blocks through the Christmas parade."
Ms Dorow had bailiffs move Brooks to another courtroom where he could participate via video after he became disruptive during her pre-sentencing remarks. He stood motionless in his jail garb and handcuffs as she announced the sentences.
Brooks' victims demanded during a hearing on Tuesday that Ms Dorow gave him the toughest sentence possible. Chris Owens, whose mother was among those killed, told Brooks: "All I ask is you rot, and you rot slow."
Before receiving his sentence, Brooks told the court on Wednesday he had suffered from mental illness since he was young, and offered his first apology to the dozens of people who were hurt or lost loved ones during the incident.
Having represented himself at trial, he said in remarks that rambled past two hours that he grew up fatherless, poor and hungry in apartment buildings infested with rats and bugs.
Brooks' mother and grandmother tried to persuade Ms Dorow to place Brooks in a mental institution rather than prison.
His grandmother, Mary Edwards, claimed Brooks has been bipolar since he was 12 and that the disorder caused him to drive into the parade. His mother, Dawn Woods, pushed the judge to ensure Brooks receives treatment in prison.
"If they have to stay for the rest of their lives away from society at least they're getting the help they need to become mentally well," his mother said.
But Ms Dorow said she does not believe Brooks is mentally ill, pointing out that four psychologists who evaluated him earlier this year found he suffers from an anti-social personality disorder but not a mental illness.
"It is my opinion that mental health issues did not cause him to do what he did on November 21, 2021, and frankly didn't play a role," the judge said on Wednesday. "It is very clear to me that he understands the difference between right and wrong and he simply chooses to ignore his conscience. He is fueled by anger and rage."
