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Driver of rampaging SUV that tore through Waukesha Christmas parade leaving at least FIVE dead and 40 injured was 'fleeing a knife crime': C
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Five people have been confirmed dead and 40 have been injured after SUV plowed into a Christmas parade
Parade was underway in Waukesha, Wisconsin, when car broke through barriers at 4.40pm and hit crowds
At least 12 children are among the injured, with elderly people and a priest also confirmed as being hurt
Police say a 'person of interest' is in custody but no arrests have been made and no motive has been disclosed
NBC reports that person has a long criminal history and was fleeing a knife fight at the time true??? dunno
Officers say they have not discounted terrorism as a motive, but are also believed to be looking into the possibility the suspect was fleeing an earlier knife incident when he reached the parade route
At least five people have been killed and 40 injured - including at least 12 children - after a speeding SUV plowed into a Christmas parade in suburban town near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Sunday.
A red Ford Escape broke through barriers in Waukesha, Wisconsin, around 4.40pm as the parade was taking place and drove at speed through crowds, sending bodies flying as horrified families watched on helplessly.
Police say a 'person of interest' is now in custody, but no arrests have been made. Chief Daniel Thompson said no motive has yet been established, but officers are not discounting terrorism. Officers are also looking into the possibility that the suspect was fleeing an earlier incident involving a knife when he reached the parade, NBC said.
Detectives will not yet confirm if they believe the attack was a deliberate act of terror, or if the suspect lost control of the vehicle while fleeing an earlier crime. A press conference has been scheduled for 2pm EST.
Thompson said one officer fired at the vehicle in an unsuccessful bid to stop it, with witnesses saying it sped along the parade route and did not slow down even as it hit a schoolgirls' dance troupe and elderly members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, along with families sitting by the side of the road.
Dozens of pieces of footage - intended to capture joyous scenes from the annual event - ended up capturing the carnage instead, revealing the car traveled at least three blocks down the parade route before breaking through barriers and speeding away.
A picture captured later at an unknown location showed what appeared to be the vehicle involved backed on to a driveway with the hood badly dented and bent up. It is unclear how the vehicle came to be there, and police have not revealed exactly how the suspect was arrested.
Corey Montiho, a Waukesha school district board member, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his daughter's dance team - made up of girls aged between nine and 15 - was hit by the SUV.
'They were pom-poms and shoes and spilled hot chocolate everywhere. I had to go from one crumpled body to the other to find my daughter,' he said. 'My wife and two daughters were almost hit.
'I saw bodies flying. I ran down the parade route to find my girls. Addison, my daughter, heard someone yell 'car' and ran away. The girls right next to her were hit.
'I was there. It was little kids and families... evil is real, fight it every chance you get.'
Others described how a moment of silence as people stood in shock gave way to screams of terror and scenes of chaos as people ran to tend to the wounded.
The incident comes just two days after Kyle Rittenhouse, the accused Kenosha shooter, was acquitted of murder charges in the deaths of two men during the unrest that erupted last year in the wake of a police shooting of a black man. Kenosha is located about 55 miles south of Waukesha.
The Rittenhouse acquittal, which stoked division along political and racial lines, prompted local and national authorities to place security forces on high alert. [link to www.dailymail.co.uk (secure)]
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