Milwaukee Black Lives Matter activist Vaun Mayes speculated Sunday that the Christmas parade massacre in Waukesha, Wisconsin, could be a harbinger of “revolution” — then backed off the sentiment days later as more information came out about the case.
“I don’t know. Now we’ll have to wait and see because they do have somebody in custody. We may have to wait and see what they say about why this happened,” Mayes said of the deadly parade incident during Facebook Live stream on Sunday evening (archive here), as lights from first responders’ vehicles flicker on his face. “But it sounds possible that the revolution has started in Wisconsin. It started with this Christmas parade.”
Black Lives Matter activist Vaun L Mayes @YungLz at the scene of the Waukesha parade attack:
"It sounds like the revolution has started," mentions hearing from a source who believes Darrell Brooks may have been motivated by the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.pic.twitter.com/ayp3BjbfZ7— Nobody (@TheNoboddy) November 22, 2021
Mayes offers more commentary on what he sees throughout the live stream, watching a local woman give an interview to a news crew and later speaking on camera to the news crew himself. Throughout the stream, however, he stresses he has limited information about the incident.
In a followup stream Tuesday morning, Mayes appeared to walk back any wider political angle to the massacre, captioning the post: “WHY ARE THE CRAZIES SO INVESTED IN THIS BEING AN EXCUSE FOR RACE WAR?”
“I said I wasn’t going to speak on no rumors. You all are repeating some of the stuff that has come up. And I can tell you that the initial person who reached out to me said that they believe that this has to do with the verdict, and so I made an assumption of which side it would be from, but I don’t know,” he added of the Rittenhouse verdict. A Wisconsin jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on Friday in the fatal shooting of two men during riots in Kenosha last August.
On Monday, Waukesha Police Chief Daniel Thompson identified Darrell E. Brooks Jr. as the driver accused of plowing an SUV into the parade, killing five people and injuring 48 others.
“We have information that the suspect prior to the incident was involved in a domestic disturbance, which was just minutes prior, and the suspect left that scene just prior to our arrival to that domestic disturbance,” the chief said.
A police officer fired several shots at Brooks as he drove through the crowd but had to stop due to risk of injury to bystanders, he added.
Police said Brooks faces five counts of first-degree intentional homicide along with possible additional charges, which could be added as the investigation progresses.
The UPI contributed to this report.
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