Darrell Brooks Wiki, Siblings, Family, Children, Wife, Father, Mother, Sovereign Citizen, Name Change

Darrell Brooks Biography – Darrell Brooks Wiki

Darrell Brooks (born Darrell Edward Brooks Jr.) is a Milwaukee native accused of killing six people when he drove his SUV into the Waukesha Christmas Parade on Nov. 21, 2021. Brooks is charged with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and 71 other counts in the parade attack, which according to authorities happened after Brooks was involved in a domestic disturbance in a nearby Waukesha park.

Tamara L. Carlson Durand, Virginia “Ginny” E. Sorenson, Leanna “Lee” Owen, Wilhelm “Bill” Hospel, Jane Kulich and Jackson Sparks died in the attack. More than 60 others were injured.

Darrell Brooks Trial

Darrell E. Brooks is on trial for 76 charges, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide for allegedly driving an SUV through the 2021 Waukesha Christmas Parade, striking dozens of spectators and participants. In a surprising turn of events the week before trial was scheduled to begin, Brooks exercised his United States Constitution Sixth Amendment right to represent himself. Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow approved his request to represent himself in his trial.

Darrell Brooks Criminal Record

Brooks has an extensive criminal record dating back to 1999. A year after Brooks was charged with his first felony in 1999 at age 17 for substantial battery intending bodily harm, he was given three years of probation. But he soon found himself tangled up in the law once again, being hit with misdemeanor charges in 2002 and 2003 over separate incidents.

In 2005, he moved to Reno, Nevada, in a bid for a fresh start but within a year, he was charged with statutory sexual seduction and contributing to the delinquency of a minor after he raped and impregnated a teen girl who he claims told him she was 18 at the time.

He settled the case by pleading guilty but was ordered not to contact the victim — a requirement he repeatedly violated by calling the teen using a stolen phone card and confronting her at a bus stop, landing him back in jail where he served just 129 days, records show.

As a result of that conviction, Brooks was forced to register as a sex offender in the state and during his time behind bars, he participated in a 2007 documentary called “Crystal Darkness.”

Between 2009 and 2011, Brooks was in and out of jail for a series of crimes, including resisting or obstructing an officer, strangulation and suffocation.

During a 2011 bust, he was charged with restricting or obstructing an officer for a second time after he was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt.

In 2016, Brooks was busted again for failing to register as a sex offender. In July 2020, he fired a gun at his nephew during a fight over a cellphone. Officers soon found Brooks with a stolen Beretta 9mm handgun and a clear plastic baggie with three multi-colored methamphetamine pills inside, records show.

He was charged with two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety and use of a dangerous weapon and was ordered to stay away from his nephew and his mother.

Brooks was facing 10 years behind bars for the crime — the heaviest sentence he faced so far but when the court was unable to guarantee him a speedy trial due to a backlog of cases and COVID-19-related delays, he was released in February 2021 on a $500 bail.

From there, Brooks went to Georgia, where he was arrested for misdemeanor battery with a designation of family violence a little over three months after he got out of jail, prosecutors said in a Waukesha courtroom.

Following Brooks’ troubles in Georgia, he made his way back to Wisconsin, where his penchant for violence bubbled up again while he was staying at the American Inn motel in Milwaukee’s Lenox Heights neighborhood with his ex-girlfriend.

Brooks allegedly accosted the woman and knocked her cellphone out of her hand and then went after her in his Ford Escape when she fled.

He caught up with her at a BP gas station about a half mile from the motel and demanded she get in his car, court records allege. When she refused, he struck her in the face and then ran her over with his car, leaving the woman with “swelling to her lip and dry blood on her face” and “tire tracks on her left pants leg,” police said.

The ex-girlfriend later told cops that Brooks had allegedly threatened to kill her on multiple occasions, had previously tried to choke her and was jealous and controlling, according to police reports obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Brooks denied the allegations and suggested to police the woman made them up because she was drunk.

He ended up being charged with recklessly endangering safety, bail jumping, battery and disorderly conduct in the incident but was given an “inappropriately low” bail of $1,000, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm later said, leaving him free to wreak havoc on the Christmas parade about three weeks later.

Darrell Brooks Sovereign Citizen

Waukesha Christmas parade attack suspect Darrell Brooks claims he’s a “sovereign citizen”. Sovereign citizens are categorized by the FBI as “extremists” who believe they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government and laws. Sovereign citizens oppose American governmental structure, including the courts and law enforcement. They believe sovereign citizens “retain an individual common law identity, exempting them from the authority of those fraudulent government institutions”.

Tactics used by sovereign citizens include speaking in a quasi-legal language, not capitalizing names, writing in red and using certain catch phrases. They believe these tactics allow them to avoid any liability in our judicial system, according to a publication by the UNC School of Government.

While sovereign citizens reject the current federal, state and local governments and consider themselves outside their authority, the beliefs hold no legal weight and are not a recognized defense to an alleged criminal act.

Darrell Brooks Name Change

Darrell Brooks objects to the use of his name during his trial. He consistently objects for the record that he does not consent to being called “that name” (Darrell Brooks).

Darrell Brooks Age

He was born Darrell Edward Brooks Jr. on February 2, 1982, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. He is 40 years old as of 2022.

Darrell Brooks Parents

Darrell Brooks is the son of Dawn Woods, a Christian woman with Southern roots. He grew up in the inner-city of Milwaukee without his father.

“I didn’t have a father growing up, so my mom was stuck raising me and my older sister. We were on welfare for most of my childhood,” Brooks wrote in a 2007 letter to a judge. “My father was an alcoholic who was very abusive to my mom. My father’s dad was also an alcoholic.”

Brooks claimed in the letter that his mother steered him away from trouble on the streets but despite her best efforts, Brooks would go on to follow in his father’s footsteps.

On Nov. 21, 2021, Brooks was accused of killing six people after plowing through a Christmas parade with his SUV in Waukesha, Wis. Darrell Brooks’ mother, Dawn Woods, released a letter to the media offering condolences to the victims via CBS 58 Milwaukee.

“The Lord spoke to my heart this morning and said to me it is time to speak.

“I’ve been contacted by numerous media outlets for a statement and have until now been reluctant to speak. Because of the way that my family and I have been and attacked in the media and whatever I say will be taken out of content.

“It is my hope that what I am about to say dose not get edited and will be made public in it’s entirety.

“We the family of Darrell Brooks want to give our condolence to the families of those who lives were so tragically taken and all of those who were injured as well as the community of Waukesha. We are deeply saddened and our hearts are torn to pieces over what happened on a day set aside for a community to come together and celebrate. What was meant to be a joyous day became a day of tragedy and heart ache. A day that we wish with all our heart would have never happened.

“Darrell did not come from a bad family like many people have said. He came from a loving Christian family and is the grandson of ministers. Darrell has suffered from mental health issues since he was very young. In those years he received counseling and was on medication. When he became an adult a decision was made that he no longer suffered from a mental illness. That decision left him with no insurance or financial means to pay for medication and when determined necessary counseling. Mental illness is not cheap to treat but what’s more important dollars spent on treatment and recourses or lives lost.

“Instead of offering help and resources to combat the problem a jail cell was given. Over and over again. When mental illness is not properly treated the person becomes sicker and sicker. It doesn’t go away once a person becomes an adult.

“We are not making excuses but we believe what has happened is because he was not given the help and resources he needed. Institutions that are equipped and have trained staff is what was needed as well as resources in the communities where people who suffer with mental illness live.

Jail is not the answer, because they get released back in society sicker than what they were when they entered . We all see what a tragedy that can turn out to be.

“We as a society must take mental illness seriously by fixing a broken system or suffer the consequences, sad as it is to say what happened in Waukesha will keep happening all over this country, in one form or another with more innocent lives lost and grieving families and communities.

“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. 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.

“Mental illness affects every walk of life and dwells in every community.

“It’s lives in our homes, it lives next door, it’s in our school’s, the grocery store, shopping malls, movie theater and other places of entertainment, and places of worship, and many other places in our communities even at parades.

“What next you say, first our hearts have to heal and we have to come together roll up our sleeves and get to work and do what ever is necessary to fix a system that has for far too long been broken. Myself and my family pray that our Lord and Savior Jesus comfort and strength each of you, and give you all peace that is beyond understanding.

“I also ask respectfully that the media please to not invade my home, not to call or send emails, myself and my family need out time to grieve as well.

“May Bless each and everyone of you.

“Dawn Woods and family”

Darrell Brooks Children

Darrell Brooks and his ex-girlfriend, Erika Patterson, have a child together. In a 2007 letter to a judge, Brooks claimed he just wanted to give his kids what he never had: “a father.” But by then, Brooks had already abandoned his firstborn son before the child was 3 months old.

“He disappeared,” the child’s mother told The Post. “I’ve done all of this on my own, raised my child by myself.”

Darrell Brooks Siblings

Darrell Brooks has an older sister.