As marching bands played and residents lined the street, a driver in a red SUV sped through a holiday parade in Waukesha, Wis., early this evening, colliding with several people and leaving more than 20 injured, the city’s police chief said.
Authorities have recovered the suspect’s vehicle, Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson said. He did not say whether police have made any arrests and did not comment on a possible motive behind the attack.
The car first collided with people in the parade about 4:40 local time, Thompson said, roughly 40 minutes after the event began.
“Tonight was a traumatic situation for the city of Waukesha,” the city’s mayor, Shawn Reilly, said in a brief appearance in front of reporters. “We don’t have all the details; we can’t provide details at this point.”
Reilly said officials will disclose more details at a news conference.
Witnesses described a terrifying scene, telling local news outlets that the vehicle barreled into a crowd that appeared to include several children, shattering the festive atmosphere at the annual event in Waukesha, about 20 miles west of Milwaukee.
Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow said he had just finished participating in the parade when he heard the sirens, learning shortly after that “a vehicle drove through the parade route injuring many people.”
“This is an unspeakable tragedy, affecting us all as we work to overcome an extremely challenging two years and resume our cherished holiday traditions,” Farrow said on Twitter.
An intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper, Kaylee Staral, said she was at the parade and saw “multiple people on the ground injured.”
“Heavy police and ambulance presence now,” Staral tweeted. “Tons of families with children running to their cars to leave the scene.”
A post to the Waukesha Police Department’s Facebook page said officials have established a family reunification center for attendees who were scattered and separated in the chaos.
Images from the parade, which traveled down the city’s main street and was set to finish near the public library, showed swarms of emergency personnel and belongings abandoned as attendees fled the scene.
(c) 2021, The Washington Post · Reis Thebault
Matzav.com
