Daniel Rider was unaware of the melee taking place less than a mile away from his house at the Waukesha Christmas parade. Then chaos came knocking on his door.
Rider, who had just gotten back from hunting and was spread out on the couch watching football, heard a knock. His doorbell camera recorded a man in a red T-shirt shivering and begging to come inside around 5 p.m.
“I called an Uber, and I’m supposed to be waiting for it over here, but I don’t know when it’s coming,” the mysterious man can be heard saying. “Can you call it for me please? I’m homeless.”
Rider’s Midwestern hospitality kicked in. He invited the man into his home, gave him a jacket, made him a sandwich, and let him use his phone.
BIDEN MOURNS VICTIMS OF WAUKESHA PARADE ATTACK
“All of a sudden, I look outside my street and I saw a few cop cars drive by and I’m getting extra nervous,” he told NBC News, who obtained the doorbell cam footage.
Not wanting any trouble, Rider asked the man, identified as Darrell Brooks Jr. to leave, which he did.
After Rider’s neighbor called the police, Brooks started pounding on Rider’s front door, yelling he had left his ID and demanding to come back in.
“Then the next thing you know, you see the cops with lights on him, saying, ‘Hands in the air, hands in the air,'” Rider said.
Rider had no idea that the man he opened his door to had fled the scene of a domestic disturbance and moments earlier plowed through paraders up the street, killing five and injuring more than 48, including children and the elderly.
Brooks, who drove his red SUV into the annual Christmas parade, will be charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide, authorities said Monday afternoon.
Those he killed are all over the age of 50 and include James Coolidge, 52, Tamara Durand, 52, Wilhelm Hospel, 82, Leanna Owens, 71, and Virginia Sorenson, 79.
The 39-year-old amateur rapper from Milwaukee, who had been bailed out of jail less than 48 hours earlier, blew past barricades and crashed into paraders, Dan Thompson, chief of the Waukesha Police Department, said Monday.
CHRISTMAS PARADE VICTIMS INCLUDE BELOVED DANCING GRANNY GROUP AND CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 3
Brooks, a career criminal, has been charged with 16 crimes since 1999 and had two outstanding cases against him at the time of the parade attack. They include resisting arrest or obstructing an officer, reckless endangering, disorderly conduct, bail jumping, and battery for a Nov. 2 incident.
Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly described the parade as a “Norman Rockwell-type” event that “became a nightmare.”
The tragedy and carnage were too much for some in the small Wisconsin city to bear.
Area schools have been canceled until Monday, and mental health workers have been dispatched to help those trying to cope with Sunday’s horror.
Hundreds gathered at a downtown park Monday night in Waukesha for a candlelight vigil in honor of those lost and hurt in a deadly Christmas parade crash a day earlier.
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A pair of clergy solemnly read the names of those who died. Volunteers handed out sandwiches, hot chocolate, and candles at the vigil, which was attended by interfaith leaders and elected officials.
“We are parents. We are neighbors. We are hurting. We are angry. We are sad. We are confused. We are thankful. We are all in this together. We are Waukesha Strong,” said a tearful Amanda Medina Roddy with the Waukesha School District.
