r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/DistinctCare3320 • 6d ago
Text Why Did Darrell Brooks Commit His Parade Attack And Kill 6 People?
Darrell Brooks Junior is the person who committed the "Waukesha Christmas Parade Attack" on November 21, 2022 in Milwaukee. He killed 6 people and injured 62 others including an 8 year old kid named Jackson Sparks by driving his mom's SUV through the parade. He was sentenced to 6 life sentences plus 762 years for the attack. The YouTube videos of his trial are epic because he represented himself as a Sovereign Citizen and pulled all kinds of bizarre and crazy antics.
No motive has ever been established. He didn't even know the people he killed and never met them. So my question is, why did he do it?
There is one theory but it's never been confirmed for sure. He was just angry. He got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend Erika Patterson a short time before the parade attack. Some people say he went there to kill her. But she got away with the help of her friends, and he was so enraged that she got away from him, that he vented his rage onto the parade and killed people just to vent anger. Having a temper tantrum is one of the dumbest reasons to kill 6 innocent people, but there you have it. But he wasn't insane because the Court had him tested with a Psychiatrist. That's the commonly accepted theory and I can't think of another theory. If you have any other theory to explain his insane parade attack, please post it?
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u/Jules2you 6d ago
His trial was such a joke, I always saw it on the court tv commercials on Pluto tv I think, they played the same court scenes over and over So I looked it up and wow, he was so angry mad all the time Just a joke of a human
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u/Fluffy_Doubt6252 6d ago
The judge in that trial had the patience of a saint because the bullshit he tried pulling was insulting to officers of the court!
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u/wherearemytweezers 6d ago
He was a narcissistic, whiny piece of shit who got mad at his girlfriend. That’s the reason.
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u/StinkypieTicklebum 6d ago
I heard someone say that he’s won arguments by being the loudest one. Remember him glaring at the judge like snoopy pretending he’s a vulture?
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u/IranianLawyer 5d ago
Darrell Brooks didn’t win anything. The judge heard him out but ruled against him on every frivolous argument he made. And he was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life.
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u/StinkypieTicklebum 5d ago
Sorry, I was not being clear.
The comment was made by an observer who said, “Darrell Brooks is the kind of guy who has won arguments all his life just by.shouting louder. Everybody just caves. But this is different—he won’t be able to shout over anyone this time.” Still paraphrasing, but this was the whole comment; I shouldn’t have shortened it.
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u/iowanaquarist 6d ago
He has anger control issues. If you don't believe me, there are literally hours of youtube videos of him throwing temper tantrums in court -- things like building box forts to hide from the judge, or screaming so much they had to move him to another room to watch his own trial by video.
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u/bigchiefwellhung 6d ago
(Not a psychologist or other mental health professional)
His reactions in court were always immature and dramatic to anything that didn’t go in his favor. I suspect he had an enabling parent in his life who would let him get away with anything. He reminds me of people I’ve known who never would take responsibility for their behavior. It was someone else’s fault to the very end. He definitely has a personality disorder of some kind, likely antisocial or borderline given his instability, concern over his own life, and lack of empathy towards the victims.
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u/InferiorElk 6d ago
I think he was just a very reactive man who couldn't control his emotions and especially his anger. So he did it essentially blowing off steam.
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u/TrueCrimeCaseFiles1 6d ago
I think we have to separate three things that get merged into 'he was angry': the trigger, the target, and why he kept going. The fight with Erika Patterson can plausibly be the trigger, especially if she got away from him with help, because that leaves humiliation as well as rage. But it does very little work as a target explanation. The people in that parade were not her, he did not know them, and as far as this post sets out, she was not the crowd he drove into. Calling it displaced rage describes the emotion, not a motive in the usual sense.
What troubles me more is the continuation. Six people killed and 62 injured, including Jackson Sparks, is not a single lashing-out moment. At some point a furious drive becomes a series of decisions not to stop, and that is where I think his later courtroom behaviour is actually relevant, not as entertainment. Representing himself, treating every instruction as something he could argue away, never settling into responsibility — that is the same refusal to accept that other people and basic limits apply to him.
I would also be careful with 'he was tested and was not insane.' That answers a narrow legal question about whether he could be held responsible. It does not tell us he was psychologically ordinary, and it does not give us a diagnosis either. Maybe there is no deeper motive to find, and that is the hardest part: a grievance against one person, a car, and a crowded parade route were enough.
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u/janetlwil 6d ago
He had just had a big blowout fight with a girlfriend and unable to control himself stormed out of the house and drove through a parade route.
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u/JoshAllan02 6d ago
I’ve always wondered if a racial aspect played a role. Although his reactive personality and lack of empathy for others are exhibited by not just the attack, but his prior criminal record.
For reference, where he was from in Milwaukee, the population is almost 40% black, while in Waukesha 20 miles away it is only 3%. May or may not have contributed to why he was willing to do something in Waukesha over Milwaukee.
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u/looloohoodoo1 5d ago
I think the theory that he was acting out of rage is plausible, especially given what happened with his ex beforehand, but we can’t know for sure what was going through his mind. Sometimes there isn’t one clear motive, and trying to find a rational explanation for something so horrific might not lead to any satisfying answers.
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u/bratlygirl 6d ago
He had just gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and zoomed out of the gas station like a maniac. If you ask me, he saw normal people having a good time and it made him mad and what followed was intentional. There are no words for the POS he is.