A police officer gave a withering response to Waukesha Christmas parade attack suspect Darrell Brooks during Day 10 of Brooks’s trial.
Waukesha police officer Bryce Scholten said there was initially confusion as to what had taken place, according to WITI-TV.
“I started hearing radio traffic about a reserve officer or community service officer requesting an ambulance because someone had been hit,” Scholten said. “It was tough to piece all together. I didn’t know exactly what was going on.”
Scholten said he saw what he called a red blur come speeding along.
“I realized what had happened at that point. There was extreme damage to the vehicle that point. Damage you’d see in a traffic crash between two vehicles,” he said.
“At that point, between all the screaming I heard, everyone calling for ambulances and help, I knew now people had been hit by a vehicle,” he said.
Scholten said he “had to use deadly force” and shot at the vehicle. He said only one person was in the vehicle, and it was Brooks.
Brooks asked Scholten if he was “shooting to kill,” but Scholten said he was not.
Police officer: “I’m trained to stop the threat, you were the threat. The vehicle was the weapon…”
Darrell Brooks: “Here’s the you again…” pic.twitter.com/NPWXBqFfAH
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 14, 2022
“I’m trained to stop the threat. You were the threat,” Scholten told Brooks. “The vehicle was just what you were in and using.”
Craig Liermann, assistant police chief for the Franklin Police Department, said he was attending as a civilian, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
The vehicle Brooks was driving passed within 10 feet of him, he said, allowing him to see the driver turn toward one group of parade participants.
“Based on his body language, my heart kind of sank, because … it clearly felt like an intentional act,” he said.
The day included a contentious exchange between Brooks, who is acting as his own attorney, and Judge Jennifer Dorow on the issue of jurisdiction.
Dorow said, “The jury will disregard the statements Mr. Brooks is making about subject matter jurisdiction. They are a misstatement of the law,” according to WLUK-TV.
“With all due respect …” Brooks interrupted.
Dorow replied that “stating that doesn’t make it respectful.”
She later threatened to again remove Brooks from the courtroom, as she has done before.
Should Brooks be allowed to represent himself?
“I’m going to warn you, if you bring this up again, I will pause and I will remove you to the next courtroom for being disrespectful, for being interruptive, for being disruptive and for bringing up irrelevant matters in front of this jury. You will forfeit your right to be present for the direct examination of this witness,” she said.
Brooks is on trial for the Nov. 21 attack on the Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in which six people were killed and more than 60 injured.
