More than 40 people were injured and at least five people killed during the 58th annual Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, when a red SUV plowed into the crowd around 4:30 pm local time, Sunday. A witness recalled the tragic incident that happened on the street.
Thomas Kluka Jr. together with his wife and their 14-year-old daughter were at the parade in Waukesha when a red SUV came toward them. He, fortunately, protected his family from being hit by the vehicle, missing them by only a few feet.
"I noticed him coming through the crowd and I noticed something was not right, and then I seen kind of like just people flying as I stood up," Kluka said to Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb on TODAY.
The first thing Kluka did was to throw his daughter out of the way, then yell to his wife to pull out of the way as well. Thankfully, they all managed to move safely enough from the car.
Kluka and his daughter had been consecutively present in the annual parade. He was just so grateful that he was able to pull his family to safety.
"I wanted to get her out of the way," he said. "That was my main concern was just to get her out of the way, just to make sure she was OK, her and her friend. If I had to get hit, I had to get hit, I was just making sure they got out of the way," he continued.
The suspect was identified on Monday, named Darrell Brooks, 39, and was recently arrested 10 days before the incident in the same county. He was charged with second-degree recklessly endangering safety, felony bail jumping, battery, obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct.
This led Kluka to question why the authorities didn't keep a closer look at him. He also believes that the driver has "malicious intent," as he tried to go around all the floats before getting close to them.
The driver sped down the street where the parade marched on. At least five people were reportedly killed and more than 40 suffered from injuries. All parents desperately tried to look for their children after being separated during the chaos.
Meanwhile, the officials issued a shelter-in-place order, asking everyone to stay away from the scene so that they could scour the streets.
