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On Sunday, an SUV sped through barricades and into a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee, killing four people and injuring over 20 adults and children in a horrifying scene captured on the city’s livestream and by onlookers’ cellphones.
Chief Dan Thompson of the Waukesha Police Department confirmed “some” persons had been slain, but wouldn’t say how many. He said a person was being held in jail, as was the SUV, but he didn’t say why.
After a group of girls wearing Santa hats and dancing with white pompoms gets struck, one video shows a woman crying repeatedly, “Oh my God!” Another scene depicts the SUV crashing through members of a marching band, its song being replaced by panicked shouts.
According to Fire Chief Steven Howard, his crew brought 11 adults and 12 children to hospitals after they were hurt. The number of people taken to hospitals by others was unclear. As approximately 8 p.m., the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin had received 15 patients from the march, with no known fatalities.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee spokeswoman Sandra Peterson claimed that a Catholic priest, several parishioners, and Waukesha Catholic kids were among those hurt.
Thompson stated that the car was in police custody. With the help of the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the inquiry was still going on.
Attorney General Josh Kaul, the state’s top law enforcement officer, tweeted: “What happened in Waukesha today is terrible, and I have every faith that those responsible will be brought to justice.”
A Waukesha police officer fired his gun in an attempt to stop the SUV as it broke through barricades at the annual parade, according to Thompson. Thompson claimed he didn’t know if the driver was hit by the officer’s bullets because no bystanders were injured.
One video shows the moment the SUV broke through the barricades, as well as the sound of multiple gunshots. Another video shows a small child dancing on the street as the SUV races past her, barely a few feet away, before crashing into parade participants a few hundred feet ahead.
A group of people tends to one of the girls who is on the ground at the end of the pompom dancers movie.
The SUV struck Corey Montiho’s daughter’s dance team, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“They were pompoms and shoes, and they splattered hot chocolate all over the place.” To find my daughter, I had to go from one crushed body to the next,” he added. “My wife and two girls were on the verge of being hit.” Please remember to pray for everyone. Please pray for me.”
“Members of the group and volunteers were impacted and we are waiting for word on their conditions,” the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies said on Facebook. A “club of grannies who meet once a week to practise routines for summer and winter parades,” according to the group’s profile.
The city’s Chamber of Commerce is organising the procession. The celebration, which takes place every year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, is now in its 59th year.
Waukesha is a western Milwaukee suburb roughly 55 miles (90 kilometres) north of Kenosha, where Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday of charges related to the shooting of three men amid riots in that city in August 2020.
