WATCH: Waukesha Christmas parade to go on one year after tragedy
Maria Leaf
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A day after Darrell Brooks was ordered to serve multiple life sentences for plowing his vehicle through last year’s Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, officials announced plans for this year’s holiday celebration.
Brooks drove his SUV through the parade in 2021. Six people died and 62 others were injured. He was convicted in October on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
“I think it’s extremely important for a community to come together and to celebrate,” Mayor Shawn N. Reilly said at a news conference Thursday. “If we didn’t have celebrations, if we just decided that we were no longer going to have community gatherings, that would be letting evil win, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
Reilly says they have taken into consideration how having a parade one year after the tragedy would affect children who may be afraid to attend.
“It is something we have definitely thought about. A big part of our ‘night of lights’ is the lights are not on Main Street, they’re on the river walk. They don’t have to be on Main Street if that triggers them,” he said.
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Reilly says security will be increased for this year’s event, which will be held Dec. 4.
“We have barricades that are put in before our parades and other events. We also have a lot more officers working to make sure everything is safe. There’s a lot of planning that goes into this, more resources that go into it. There’s overt things that you see and covert things that you won’t,” he said.
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First responders and medical professionals will be honored at this year’s parade as the grand marshals.
“That was a long night for our hospitals,” Reilly said. “They experienced the horror themselves.”
A remembrance ceremony will be held on Nov. 21 to mark one year since the tragedy.
