December 01, 2021
A vehicle allegedly driven by Darrell E. Brooks Jr. speeds through the Waukesha Christmas parade route on November 21, as captured on the city’s livestream video of the event. (source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Darrell Edward Brooks Jr., who faces six counts of first-degree intentional homicide after he drove into a Christmas Parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, apparently shared several conspiracy theory-themed social media posts in 2015, according to a review of his online footprint conducted by the ADL’s Center on Extremism. However, there currently appears to be little evidence that Brooks actively subscribes to an overarching extremist ideology or is a member of any organized group.
Law enforcement have not yet provided a motive for the attack. Waukesha Police Chief Daniel Thompson said in a press conference on November 22 that Brooks was apparently fleeing a domestic disturbance before he drove through the parade route. Thompson noted that Brooks’ attack “was not a terrorist event.”
Social media accounts that appear to belong to Brooks indicate support for some conspiratorial, Black nationalist and antisemitic beliefs.
A Facebook account apparently belonging to Brooks shared a graphic in 2015 with a falsified Adolf Hitler quotation about the “real Jews” and the “false Jews.” The fake quote, which includes the statement that “the negros are the real children of Israel,” has been circulated by members of the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI), a fringe religious movement that rejects widely accepted definitions of Judaism and asserts that people of color are the true children of Israel. It is unclear from this post or his other available social media if Brooks subscribes to BHI ideology more broadly.
Conspiratorial posts from Brooks’ apparent social media accounts include a meme shared in 2015 with an image of the Georgia Guidestones and a reference to the New World Order. In another post from 2015, he shared a meme about an alleged conspiracy involving the Illuminati to control various American government agencies.
Brooks has a lengthy criminal record and a history of violence against women. Only weeks before the parade attack, he was arrested on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges after he allegedly got into a domestic dispute with a woman, followed her to a gas station and then intentionally ran her over with his vehicle. A few months earlier, in May 2021, he was arrested on a domestic violence battery charge in Georgia after allegedly striking his girlfriend.
He is a registered sex offender in the state of Nevada, where in 2006 he was convicted of felony statutory sexual seduction for impregnating a 15-year-old girl. Brooks has also previously faced drug and weapons charges.