The man who unknowingly took in Waukesha Christmas parade suspect is speaking out. On Sunday evening Daniel Rider received a knock on his door.
Rider’s camera-enabled doorbell captured the moment. Standing outside was a man claiming to be cold and homeless. “So I was like, ‘Oh! This was my chance to help somebody. I’m going to warm him up and give him some food,'” Rider admitted to thinking to CBS News.
Video Shows Wisconsin Parade Suspect Asking Unsuspecting Homeowner for Help After Driving Through Christmas Parade
Rider invited the man into his home and offered to make him a sandwich. What Rider didn’t know at the time was the man he had just made a sandwich for was the man police suspected of wreaking havoc on the Wisconsin parade.
In an interview with NBC News, Rider revealed that the video was timestamped just after 5 p.m. Meaning the suspect, Darrell Brooks, arrived on Rider’s doorstep just 20 minutes after the tragedy took place.
“I called an Uber and I’m supposed to be waiting for it over here, but I don’t know when it’s coming,” Brooks is heard saying on the video. “Can you call it for me please? I’m homeless.”
Rider was watching football at the time and had no idea what had just taken place a few blocks away. In an effort to help Brooks, he invited him in, made him a sandwich, let him use his phone, and offered him a jacket when police started to arrive.
“All of a sudden, I look outside my street and I see a few cop cars drive by and I’m getting extra nervous,” he said. At this point, Brooks was already outside again but returned and began pounding on Rider’s door claiming he forgot his ID.
“Then the next thing you know, you see the cops with lights on him saying, ‘hands in the air, hands in the air.'” The video Brooks complying.
As Mamas Uncut previously reported, 39-year-old Darrell Brooks Jr. has a rather extensive criminal history. As USA Today reported, Brooks is a “Milwaukee man with an open court case related to domestic violence.”
Over the last two years, Brooks has also been charged “with recklessly endangering the safety of others, the third time occurring on November 5 as part of a domestic abuse incident for which he was also charged with resisting or obstructing an officer.”
Notably, Brooks was only just released from jail on Friday after posting his $1,000 bail. He was accused of “purposefully running over a woman with his vehicle as she walked through a gas station parking lot,” USA Today reported.
Brooks had allegedly followed the woman to the parking lot of getting in a fight with her. His extremely low bail is now under investigation.
A motive for the deadly incident still has not yet been revealed, but it is believed Brooks was fleeing from another incident at the time he allegedly drove through the parade. Sadly, six people have lost their lives at the parade and many more suffered injuries. The youngest victim has been identified as 8 years old.
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