After nearly two weeks behind bars, the man who allegedly plowed an SUV through a Wisconsin Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring dozens more, said he is starting to feel less than human.
Darrell Brooks Jr. is charged with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the parade massacre last month. In his first interview since the deadly holiday event, the 39-year-old suspect on Wednesday did not provide a motive for the incident, but lamented his current situation.
“I just feel like I’m being (made out to be a) monster — demonized” and “dehumanized,” he told Fox News from inside Waukesha County Jail.
He also told his two interviewers that they are the only people who have visited him since he was taken into custody. Not even his mother, Dawn Woods, who he said he is “very” close with, has stopped in to see him. Earlier in the day Wednesday, she released a 670-word statement about her son, writing that he has suffered from mental illness since he was young.
As child, she continued, he received the care he needed. As an adult however, Brooks has been in and out of jail since losing the insurance he needs to address his issues.
“Mental illness is real and the system is broken it can and must be fixed NOW, not next year or with a new legislation, NOW,” she said, adding that she was not trying to make excuses for her son.
“So many like Darrell that have fallen through the cracks because of a broken system that no one cared to address, can get the help they so desperately need.”
Hundreds of revelers were milling about in downtown Waukesha on Nov. 21, when Darrell allegedly drove a vehicle, believed to be his mother’s, across the parade route. Six people were killed and another 40 were injured in the chaos.
Darrell was arrested on the scene just minutes later.
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