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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Justin Vallejo

Waukesha Christmas parade massacre suspect complains about his prison food

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Waukesha Christmas parade massacre suspect has filed a grievance about his treatment while awaiting trial on charges of killing six people and injuring dozens more.

Darrell Brooks Jr, 40, claimed in a letter to his mother that doesn’t feel safe and accused inmates of spitting in his food and prison guards of threatening him with violence.

The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department said they reviewed Mr Brooks’ formal complaint but found he is being treated properly.

He has previously complained of being "dehumanized" and made to feel like a "monster" after being arrested on 77 charges for allegedly driving through barricades into the annual holiday parade in Waukesha on 21 November.

Police estimate Mr Brooks Jr drove up to 25 mph head-on into crowds, with some of them flung into the air and landing on the hood of his Ford SUV.

He ran over some as they lay on the ground and carried others along on the hood for five blocks in the Milwaukee suburb in November, according to the criminal complaint.

The six victims killed were identified as Jackson Sparks, 8; Tamara Durand, 52; Jane Kulich, 52; LeAnna Owen, 71; Virginia Sorenson, 79; and Wilhelm Hospel, 81.

Six people died in the attack

Mr Brooks is due in court on 4 April for a motion hearing ahead of the scheduled trial start on 3 October.

He is being held at the Waukesha County Jail on $5m bail and wrote about his experience in a letter shared by his mother to FOX6.

In it, he alleges that one of the corrections officers was overheard saying: "I hope they give this stupid [n-word] life in prison. They are going to kill him in prison."

In another line, he writes that officers offered to pay his fellow inmates to "F him up and to spit in his food".

"I’ve been stripped of everything that makes me feel human," he added in the letter to his mother.

In his first interview with media, Mr Brooks told Fox News Digital that no one, not even his mother, had come to visit him since being held in Waukesha County Jail.

"I just feel like I’m being monster – demonized," Mr Brooks told Fox.

Darrell Brooks Jr is due back in court on 4 April (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Soon after Mr Brooks’ arrest, his mother Dawn Woods released a statement through local media decrying Wisconsin’s criminal justice system for failing her son, a longtime felon with a 50-page rap sheet detailing domestic violence, firearms, drugs and other convictions in Wisconsin, according to documents obtained by Fox.

He is also a registered child sex offender in Nevada and served time in Georgia for beating his ex, records show.

He was released on a $1,000 bond just days prior after the alleged attack on his ex-girlfriend, who is also the mother of his child.

Mr Brooks Jr had allegedly beaten up his ex-girlfriend in the moving SUV because she didn’t bail him out of jail for several days for running her over with the same SUV, according to the criminal complaint.

She told investigators she met Mr Brooks, the father of her child, who drove her around punching her in the face with one hand and steering the SUV with the other. She got out of the vehicle minutes before he drove through the crowd, prosecutors allege.

Associated Press contributed to this report

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