Brooks, 39, is charged with 5 counts of first-degree intentional murder and is predicted to face a sixth rely after an 8-year-old boy died Tuesday. Waukesha County District Lawyer Susan Opper has additionally mentioned further expenses are probably.
Brooks’ attorneys, Jeremy Perri and Anna Kees, cautioned individuals to not choose the case earlier than all info are recognized.
“It’s important that we not rush to judgment, and as a substitute deal with these proceedings and all these concerned with dignity and respect,” they mentioned in an announcement.
“That features Mr. Brooks, who’s entitled to a vigorous protection and cautious safety of his Constitutional rights. Regardless of how severe and emotional the fees, till the federal government proves its allegations past an inexpensive doubt, our consumer is presumed harmless.”
Opper mentioned Wednesday her workplace wouldn’t touch upon a pending case.
Brooks is accused of refusing to cease whilst an officer banged on the hood of his SUV. One other officer fired three pictures into the car, nevertheless it didn’t cease.
5 individuals ranging in age from 52 to 81 had been pronounced useless inside hours. One in all many injured kids, Jackson Sparks, 8, died on Tuesday. Representatives for space hospitals mentioned Wednesday that not less than 16 persons are being handled for accidents.
Brooks hasn’t spoken publicly and it’s not recognized what, if something, he informed investigators.
However even when Brooks was underneath the affect of medicine or alcohol on the time — and police haven’t mentioned he was — that might not be used as a protection in Wisconsin, consultants mentioned.
Tom Grieve, a Brookfield protection lawyer and former Waukesha County prosecutor, mentioned one attainable protection can be that Brooks was affected by a psychological illness or defect. A jury must resolve if he was responsible of the fees after which whether or not he was mentally in poor health. Such a discovering would probably land him in a psychological establishment fairly than jail.
Opper may have charged Brooks with first-degree reckless murder, which might have been a “slam dunk” conviction that, given Brooks’ age, would have been an efficient life sentence, Bucher mentioned. However intensive video and different proof additionally assist the extra severe cost, he and different consultants mentioned.
“The actual fact he didn’t step on the brakes: That was intentional. The truth that his foot was on the fuel: That was intentional. He may have stopped … He’s the one one that may put his foot on the brake pedal and he didn’t,” Grieve mentioned.
A felony grievance detailing the fees contains statements from cops and witnesses who mentioned the car “gave the impression to be deliberately shifting aspect to aspect,” with no try and decelerate or cease because it struck a number of individuals and despatched our bodies and objects flying.
One officer who tried to cease the car mentioned Brooks was trying straight at him, and it appeared he had no emotion on his face, the grievance mentioned.
Prosecutors wouldn’t be allowed to place police or bystanders on the stand to invest on what Brooks meant to do or his frame of mind, consultants mentioned.
Bucher mentioned prosecutors additionally wouldn’t be capable to introduce social media posts made by Brooks, an aspiring rapper, or lyrics from his songs suggesting an curiosity in violence — which turned the topic of widespread hypothesis on social media that Brooks’ actions had been intentional.
Brooks included hyperlinks on social media to his songs, a number of of which seemingly have fun violence and name police “pigs.” In a biography on his SoundCloud account, he refers to rising up within the “harmful west aspect neighborhood of Washington Park” in Milwaukee, his “a number of authorized battles” and his want to show the “life he lived on the streets” into music.
Brooks, who has been charged with crimes greater than a dozen occasions since 1999, had two excellent instances towards him on the time of the parade catastrophe, together with one earlier in November wherein he’s accused of deliberately putting a girl along with his automotive in Milwaukee County. He had been free on $1,000 bail for that case, which prosecutors now say was inappropriately low.
And on Sunday, Brooks was leaving the scene of a home dispute that had taken place simply minutes earlier than he drove into the parade route, Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson mentioned.
A number of consultants predicted a plea deal.
“If I had been on this case, what I’d be attempting to do was to see how I can put out this fireplace as rapidly as attainable,” mentioned Phil Turner, a former federal prosecutor who now works in non-public observe in Chicago. “In case you let it linger, it’s solely going to worsen.”