Wisconsin man unknowingly helped parade crash suspect after rampage
▶ Watch Video: Suspect in court after Christmas parade rampage
A Wisconsin resident who allowed Darrell Brooks into his home said he was shocked when he discovered who he had helped. Brooks, 39, is accused of intentionally plowing his SUV through parade-goers in Waukesha, killing five and injuring dozens.
Daniel Rider said he was sitting in his living room watching the Dallas Cowboys play the Kansas City Chiefs when Brooks knocked on his door, asking for help. He had no clue about the mayhem that unfolded downtown just moments earlier. Rider said his mom told him the message of a church sermon about helping the homeless.
“So I was like, ‘Oh! This was my chance to help somebody. I’m going to warm him up and give him some food,'” Rider told David Begnaud, lead national correspondent for CBS Mornings.
The encounter, captured on a Ring doorbell camera, occurred moments after the deadly crash at the Christmas parade. Brooks left his red SUV nearby Rider’s home.
Brooks looked thin and cold, Rider said. He lent Brooks his jacket and phone and made him a sandwich. Brooks sat on his couch the entire time, he said, and made several phone calls to his mother while waiting for an Uber to pick him up.
“He was so polite. He was nice to me. He listened to everything I told him to do. Now, knowing what he just did moments before that, it’s hard to even wrap your head around,” Rider said.
According to Rider, Brooks even asked him if he knew what was going on downtown where Brooks was accused of killing five and wounding 62 others. But Rider had been tuned into the football game and Brooks had his phone, which was receiving alerts to shelter in place. “I had no idea anything was happening,” Rider said.
“He is he is telling me that, ‘Oh, is there something going on downtown?’ I was like, ‘There’s a parade today.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, that’s probably the parade.’ So he was just completely putting on a face and lying about everything,” Rider said.
About 10 minutes after Brooks arrived, Rider said he started “getting real nervous” because a police car was driving up and down the street. He asked for Brooks to leave.
Brooks was arrested shortly after, and Rider said the Uber arrived about a minute after he was put in handcuffs. Brooks made his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon. He faces five counts of intentional homicide and prosecutors plan to file an additional charge after the death of a sixth victim.