(NEW YORK) — Home births in the United States reached the highest level in three decades during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The report’s findings show the nationwide number of pregnant people giving birth at home rose from 1.26% in 2020 to 1.41% in 2021 — an increase of 12% and the highest level since at least 1990. That followed a 22% increase from 2019 to 2020.
The percentage peaked in January 2021 at 1.51%, according to the report.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of U.S. births still happen at a hospital or birthing center. Prior to the pandemic, the country’s rate of home births hovered around 1%.
The report noted that interest in home births increased due to COVID-19 and “concerns about giving birth in a hospital.”
The rise in U.S. home births from 2020 to 2021 was sharpest among Black women, with an increase of 21%. That followed a 36% increase from 2019 to 2020, according to the report.
For Hispanic women, home births increased 15% from 2020 to 2021, following a 30% increase from 2019 to 2020. For white women, home births increased 10% from 2020 to 2021, following a 21% increase from 2019 to 2020, according to the report.
From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of home births was on the rise in 30 U.S. states, with increases ranging from 8% for Florida to 49% for West Virginia. That followed increases in home births in 40 states from 2019 to 2020, the report said.
Medical associations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists assert that every individual should have the right and opportunity to choose how they want to give birth. But they also say that hospitals and birthing centers are the safest places to give birth because trained professionals can intervene quickly if something goes wrong.
(CHICAGO) — An 8-year-old boy was not properly harnessed to a safety rope when he fell 24 feet off a climbing wall at Chicago’s Navy Pier this summer, suffering severe injuries, his parents allege in a new lawsuit.
Erin and Gideon Brewer took their three children to Navy Pier on July 27 while visiting the city from Grand Rapids, Michigan.
When their son George went up the climbing wall, he made it to the top before plunging 24 feet to the ground, according to the family. The fall was caught on camera by his mother, who said she was unaware he was not properly harnessed.
“It felt like a nightmare,” his mother, Erin Brewer, said during a press briefing Wednesday.
There was no cushion at the bottom of the climbing wall when George slammed into the concrete, his family said. As a result, he suffered “severe injuries” all over his body and has undergone multiple surgeries, according to the complaint.
“We thought he was dead when he fell,” his father, Gideon Brewer, told reporters. “His little brothers saw him too, saw the whole thing, and were asking us, ‘Is George dead? Is George dead?'”
As a result of the fall, George broke his tibia, pelvis and chin, shattered his femur, had a concussion and sustained damage to his growth plate, Erin Brewer said.
“Hearing your child asking if he’s going to die. I mean, he’s an 8-year-old boy,” Erin Brewer said. “It’s like his innocence was taken from him.”
George has needed four surgeries so far, and has another surgery scheduled for the end of January, his parents said. Due to the severity of his injuries, he had to start the school year in a wheelchair, his mother said.
“It’s infuriating because this was 100% preventable. This should never have happened ever,” Erin Brewer said.
A spokesperson for Navy Pier said they have not seen the lawsuit.
“It is our standard practice not to comment on litigation,” the spokesperson said.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Circuit Court of Cook County on George’s behalf, alleges negligence and willful and wanton conduct by the defendants, including the two operators of the climb wall. The family is suing for George’s medical and hospital expenses, among other damages.
(WASHINGTON) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Joe Biden on Wednesday urging the president to, as Abbott described it, carry out his constitutional obligations to protect the country from what Abbott called an “invasion” of migrants at the southern border.
Abbott slammed the president’s policies, contending that Biden’s “inaction has led to catastrophic consequences” for Texas communities. The governor, a major Republican critic of Biden’s, has increasingly focused on the issue of immigration, facing backlash from migrants’ advocates and the Biden administration as a result.
“You must reinstate the policies that you eliminated, or craft and implement new policies, in order to fulfill your constitutional duty to enforce federal immigration laws and protect the States against invasion,” Abbott wrote.
His letter reflects his push to ramp up his rhetoric about what he has called the Biden administration’s “open-border policies.”
On Tuesday, Abott tweeted that he had “invoked the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion.”
In the tweet, the governor included a list of actions he said he had constitutional authority to take, including deploying gun boats to parts of the border, deploying Department of Public Safety officers to arrest immigrants who have crossed illegally into the United States and building parts of the border wall.
That announcement sparked a series of misleading headlines that Abbott had officially declared an “invasion” at the southern border, a move that would give him added authority to activate local state law enforcement agencies to deport migrants.
Abbott’s budget director, Sarah Hicks, was asked Tuesday about the tweet during her testimony before the state’s Senate Committee on Border Security and she reassured the panel of Texas legislators that the governor was not announcing a new strategy, but was rather reiterating some of the actions he has already taken to stem illegal immigration.
“I don’t think it is a change in overall tactic as much as it is a reminder to all of us, to Congress and to the members working the issue that this is serious and it demands a full and serious response,” Hicks said.
Since Biden took office last year, Abbott has issued a series of executive orders aimed at curtailing immigration. In July, he authorized state law enforcement to return migrants suspected of entering the country illegally to ports of entry. That move has been criticized by immigration advocates and rights organizations who say it endangers migrants and may leave people who are lawfully hoping to claim asylum susceptible to racial profiling.
On Wednesday, the governor sent another letter to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department urging them to “expand their unprecedented efforts to combat the growing illegal immigration along the Texas-Mexico border.”
“You have an essential assignment: Use every available tool and strategy to fight back against the unprecedented invasion that Texas is seeing at our border. Until Congress acts or the Biden Administration does its constitutionally required job, Texas Guardsmen and Troopers must bear the burden of securing the border. You must continue to keep Texans and Americans safe and protect against an invasion of the southern border. I order you to use all resources and tools available to repel immigrants from attempting to cross illegally, arrest those who cross illegally and return them to the border, and arrest criminals who violate Texas law,” the governor wrote.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, told ABC News that Abbott may be overstepping his authority by saying he can declare an invasion at the border.
“The reality is that no governor can unilaterally declare that they’re being invaded by migrants to take over basic immigration enforcement practices. The U.S. Constitution does not authorize governors to usurp federal immigration authority and no matter how you look at it, migrants seeking asylum are not invading,” he said.
Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment; neither did the White House.
Reichlin-Melnick said he believes Abbott’s use of the word “invasion” is especially dangerous because Texas is home to one of the deadliest attacks on Latinos: the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart that killed 23 people. Investigators have said the El Paso gunman wrote a screed posted online saying the massacre was in response to an “invasion” of Hispanics coming across the southern border.
“I think we have seen the dangers of harsh rhetoric against migrants,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “The El Paso shooting is the best example of that. It occurred in his own state and it involved a person who believes that the state is being invaded by Latinos, killing dozens of people. Rhetoric about invasions inflames the issue, it doesn’t promote compromise.”
(WASHINGTON) — California Rep. Karen Bass is projected to win her campaign to become Los Angeles’ mayor, ABC News reports.
Bass will be the first woman and second Black person, after Tom Bradley, to hold the office. She had appeared to be in a close race against the billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, a former registered Republican who campaigned as an outsider better able to address the city’s pressing issues, including public safety and homelessness.
But Bass, a former state Assembly speaker with endorsements from national Democrats including Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, who had also considered picking Bass to be his No. 2, bet on a winning coalition from L.A., the country’s second-largest city and the center of the largest Democratic state in the country.
“We are in a fight for the soul of our city,” Bass said on election night. “We will win because we are going to build a new Los Angeles.”
With 76% of the expected vote reporting as of Wednesday, Bass leads with 53% of the vote compared to Caruso with 47%. As more mail votes have been counted, Bass’ lead has grown after she and Caruso were essentially tied during the initial returns last week.
Bass is finishing out her sixth term in Congress and is a member of the House Foreign Affairs and House Judiciary committees. She was also the author of a major piece of House legislation to change policing laws in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
Caruso, by contrast, had mounted a competitive campaign as the more centrist option.
He drew a slew of notable celebrity endorsements — from Snoop Dogg to Katy Perry — as well as support from local groups like the L.A. police union.
“The wonderful thing I never knew as a candidate, when you’re running for mayor, is that you develop a larger family alongside the people that you would never have met in communities, because we’ve all come together for a cause,” he said last week.
Bass will succeed L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, taking over as the city is tested by a number of issues — from political scandals related to the city council to concerns about crime and the homeless.
(WASHINGTON) — The Environmental Protection Agency announced last month that the water in Jackson, Mississippi, is now safe to drink, though agency administrator Michael Regan admits that there is still a lot of work to be done.
“The state and the city, the federal government, we’re all at the table with our sleeves rolled up looking for and identifying this path forward,” he told ABC News’ GMA3.
Regan joined GMA3 to talk about his visit to Jackson, his so-called “Journey to Justice” tour across the country and what climate action we can expect from the U.S. moving forward.
In addition to Jackson, Regan has also recently traveled to Egypt to participate in the COP27 conference on climate change, where the U.S. announced it would make significant efforts to curb methane emissions.
GMA3:Joining us now from Jackson, Mississippi, is the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Michael Regan. Thank you so much for being with us. I know you’ve made several trips down there to Jackson. I believe this is your fourth trip. What is the latest information you can share about what’s happening there on the ground?
REGAN:Well, good afternoon and thank you for having me, Amy. You know, this is my fourth trip, and it was a great trip.
The purpose for being there was to host a roundtable, engaged with community members and give them an update on the fact that the state, the federal government and the city are at the table negotiating some near-term solutions that hopefully will be overseen by a federal court if we reach an agreement.
So we are optimistic about moving forward to secure some longer term stability for the drinking water here in Jackson.
GMA3:And I know you’ve been meeting with residents there in Jackson. You’ve been hearing their personal stories about how this has impacted their lives. Can you share some of them with us?
REGAN:Well, I was, you know, my second visit with Miss Ali Anderson yesterday. She invited me back to her home. She’s 98 years old, a lifelong resident of Jackson. And she just walked me through day in and day out what it’s like for her to try to lift these crates of bottled water and how to use bottled water to cook and brush your teeth.
And, you know, she’s extremely frustrated but very optimistic. And she gave me some really sage advice two trips ago, and that is ignore the politics on the ground and focus on solutions. And so that’s why I convened the governor and the mayor and the entire Mississippi delegation to think about how do we chart a path forward. And that’s what we’ve been doing.
GMA3:Is there a permanent solution available or known at this point?
REGAN:You know, we have a lot of options that are on the table. We are in confidential negotiations about how to continue that process. So I can’t go into too many details. But what I can say is I’m optimistic about the path that we’re charting forward and the state and the city, the federal government, we’re all at the table with our sleeves rolled up looking for and identifying this path forward.
GMA3:All right. And Michael, I know you’ve been traveling from Mississippi. You were in Egypt, I believe, just last week for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. And the U.S. made a big announcement regarding methane emissions. Tell us what that announcement was, how it affects all of us here in this country and why this is such a big deal.
REGAN: Well, you know, I was proud that the president announced a number of actions that we’re taking to combat methane, which is a really powerful greenhouse gas pollutant. And the EPA announced that, you know, we’re going to push out supplemental regulation, basically a technology standard that gives us the ability to reduce 87% of the methane coming out of existing facilities and new facilities by 2030.
This is a really big deal because it’s allowing us to leverage technology to reduce this powerful pollutant while also reducing the loss of the gas product itself. And so we partner with industry, we partner with the environmental community, you know, unions, environmental justice community. This is a win-win not only for technology and for reducing pollution, but also for public health. And we’re really excited about that announcement that the president made in Egypt.
GM3:And what is the hope that this will have in terms of impact on the environment, on climate change, by making this big change?
REGAN:Well, you know, the goal worldwide is for us to keep global warming from increasing 1.5 degrees Celsius. We believe that this is a significant step forward to keep us on that path. You know, we have this saying keep 1.5 alive globally and the United States is doing its part. Again, methane is a very powerful pollutant. President Biden said from day one that America was back on the international stage and that we would lead. And he is walking the world through that vision with action and some of the actions that are being taken like this methane proposal. So we’re playing our part and we’re doing it well.
GMA3:I mentioned you’ve been traveling. You actually have legitimately been on a tour. You call it the ‘Journey to Justice’ tour going across the country. Tell us what the tour is and what you’ve learned and what the EPA is doing about getting some of that information from the people you’ve been speaking with.
REGAN:You know, thank you for asking that question. Our ‘Journey to Justice’ tour really is about getting from behind the desk in Washington, D.C., and traveling and meeting people where they are and hearing their stories. My tour started here in Jackson, Mississippi, and went through the Black Belt of the South.
But I’ve also been to Puerto Rico as well. And we’re looking to move to to take a trip to the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia soon. The goal is to really highlight the infrastructure needs, the lack of investment in many of our Black and brown and low-income and tribal communities.
And the reality is, is that we’re finally at a point where we have the resources at the federal level to match to many solutions that these communities have had for decades.
Thanks to the president’s leadership and to Congress, we have a number of historic pieces of legislation that finally give us billions of dollars that we could put into the hands of states, communities, nonprofits to really provide that path forward for clean air and clean water and environmental justice and equity for everyone in this country.
GMA3: Well you are certainly a very busy man. So we appreciate your time today. EPA Administrator Michael Regan, thank you so much.
(NEW YORK) — Amazon began layoffs on Wednesday of workers on its devices team, which focuses on products like its voice-operated Alexa, Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services, said in a memo.
The move adds the company to a list of major tech firms that have imposed job cuts in recent weeks, including Facebook-parent Meta and Twitter.
The memo did not provide details on the scale of the layoffs, but the job losses arrive at a time when the company typically expands its workforce during the busy holiday season.
“We continue to face an unusual and uncertain macroeconomic environment,” the memo said. “After a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programs.”
“In cases where employees cannot find a new role within the company, we will support the transition with a package that includes a separation payment, transitional benefits and external job placement support,” the memo added.
The layoffs follow major job cuts at other big tech firms, as industry titans retreat from record sales attained during the pandemic, when billions across the world were forced into isolation. Customers stuck at home came to rely on delivery services like e-commerce and virtual connections formed through social media and videoconferencing.
However, persistent recession fears, rising interest rates and a shift back toward a pre-pandemic lifestyle have crunched the tech sector.
Under new owner Elon Musk, Twitter laid off roughly half of its 7,500-person workforce, citing losses of about $4 million each day.
Days later, Meta announced that it would cut about 11,000 employees, which amounts to roughly 13% of its workforce. The company reported a second consecutive quarter of declining sales last month.
Lyft, Netflix, Coinbase, Salesforce, Microsoft and Snap are among a slew of other tech companies that have cut workers this year.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq has fallen more than 25% in 2022. Shares in Amazon are down 18% this year.
Third-quarter earnings released by Amazon last month fell short of analyst expectations for revenue, sending the stock down 13% in extended trading on the day of the announcement.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Police in Moscow, Idaho, are pleading with the public to help them find the unknown suspect who stabbed four University of Idaho students to death in a house near campus.
“That individual is still out there,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said during a news conference Wednesday. “We cannot say there is no threat to the community.”
The victims were killed with a knife in “an isolated, targeted attack”, Fry said.
The students, who were killed early Sunday morning and found hours later, were identified as Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.
Two other roommates were home at the time of the crime, and they were not hurt, Fry said. It was not a hostage situation, he added.
Those roommates were home when police responded to a call for an unconscious individual at about noon on Sunday, Fry said.
Police said they are working to determine the victims’ timeline Saturday night.
Chapin and Kernodle were at a party on campus while Goncalves and Mogen were at a downtown bar that night, Fry said.
Chapin didn’t live in the house but was sleeping over with his girlfriend, Kernodle, according to his mother, Stacy Chapin.
Goncalves and Mogen had been best friends since childhood and “did everything together,” Goncalves’ sister, Alivia Goncalves, told ABC News.
She said she finds some solace that the friends were together in their final moments.
Autopsies are taking place Wednesday, Fry said.
He urged anyone with information about the victims’ whereabouts to call the tip line at 208-883-7180.
(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Western New York is bracing for a “significant” lake-effect snowstorm that could dump up to 4 feet of snow in the Buffalo region over the coming days.
A lake-effect snow warning is in effect starting 7 p.m. Wednesday through 1 a.m. Saturday for southern Erie County.
The long-duration event is also expected in the east and southeast Great Lakes region, according to the National Weather Service in Buffalo.
Up to 4 feet of snow is possible for the region by Saturday morning. Winds gusting as high as 35 mph are also forecast.
“Travel could be very difficult to impossible,” the National Weather Service in Buffalo warned. “The hazardous conditions will impact the commutes from Thursday morning through Friday evening.”
Snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour are forecast for the Thursday morning commute.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she plans to issue a state of emergency that will into effect Thursday morning and will deploy emergency response assets ahead of the storm.
“Hazardous travel conditions and local power outages as a result of the storm are likely due to the combination of snow, ice and wind in the forecast,” her office said in a statement Wednesday.
Parts of the New York State Thruway will also be closed to commercial traffic starting at 4 p.m. Thursday, she said.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz advised private businesses and schools to close on Friday if the forecast holds.
“We are gonna have a doozy,” he said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
Lake-effect snow is common in the late fall and early winter along the downwind shores of the Great Lakes, which is caused by cold air flowing over the warmer waters of the Great Lakes.
In November 2014, more than 5 feet of lake-effect snow fell just east of Buffalo, in what was one of the most significant winter events in the city’s history, according to the National Weather Service. A second lake-effect event days later dropped another 1 to 4 feet of snow in the same area, bringing the total from the two storms to nearly 7 feet, it said.
Beyond Buffalo, snow is also expected over upper New England on Wednesday, with winter weather advisories issued for the area.
Upstate New York, northern Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are expected to see more than 3 inches of fresh snow, with more than 6 inches expected in northern Maine. More than a foot is possible along the Canadian border in Maine.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Brian Hartman contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Republicans are projected to retake control of the House in the midterm elections, breaking Democrats’ unified control of the federal government, ABC News reports.
Despite other midterm disappointments, that marks a major victory for the party that’s been the chamber’s minority since 2019 — and will be a blow to President Joe Biden’s agenda in Congress.
Democrats already won control of the Senate, securing 50 seats with the opportunity to gain one more in the Georgia runoff next month between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker.
But Republicans, who will take over in the House in January, will now be able to block White House legislative priorities, decide what bills come to the chamber floor and have the opportunity to launch committee investigations into the Biden administration.
Several House Republicans have already said they intend to investigate Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and look into the administration’s policies on COVID-19 and the southern border.
The GOP House leader, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, was nominated by his colleagues this week to be the next speaker, the chamber’s top position and second in line to the presidency.
“I’m proud to announce the era of one-party, Democrat rule in Washington is over,” McCarthy said after the intraparty leadership vote on Tuesday.
In a tweet on Wednesday night, he wrote, “Americans are ready for a new direction, and House Republicans are ready to deliver.”
Biden also released a statement on Wednesday that alluded to some Republican losses in the midterms but said: “I congratulate Leader McCarthy on Republicans winning the House majority, and am ready to work with House Republicans to deliver results for working families.”
McCarthy unveiled his party’s vision for Republican rule ahead of the midterms. Their “Commitment to America” plan focused on four key areas: creating an “economy that’s strong,” “a nation that’s safe,” “a future that’s built on freedom” and “a government that’s accountable.”
The pitch to voters largely avoided specific policy, instead focusing on criticisms of and contrast with Biden’s leadership — specifically on high inflation and anxiety surrounding crime.
McCarthy also vowed to bring down federal government spending and said Republicans are prepared to seek more congressional oversight for the billions in financial assistance to Ukraine as the nation defends itself from Russia’s invasion.
Republicans had been favored for months to win back control of the chamber, according to FiveThirtyEight’s forecast. Midterms have historically been a referendum on the president’s party.
Just twice in the past 19 midterm cycles — stretching back nearly 40 years — has the president’s party actually gained seats in the House.
But the anticipated “red wave” didn’t fully materialize, as Democrats kept the Senate and limited their losses in the House. Exit polling showed that voters, including independents, favored Democrats on key issues like abortion access despite the public’s disapproval of economic conditions.
“We know our job will not be easy,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. “We know the task. We’ve got a close majority. We’ll have to work together. We want to work with anyone who wants to make America stronger.”
Biden, meanwhile, has celebrated staving off historical headwinds after casting the elections as a choice between Democratic priorities and those of far-right “MAGA Republicans” rather than an appraisal of his first two years as commander-in-chief.
“I’m incredibly pleased by the turnout,” Biden told reporters when Democrats were projected to win the Senate. “And I think it’s a reflection of the quality of our candidates.”
(WAUKESHA, Wisc.) — Darrell Brooks was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility for parole for driving his SUV into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last year, killing six people and injuring dozens more, after being removed twice from the courtroom for disrupting the proceedings.
“This community can only be safe if you are behind bars for the rest of your life,” Judge Jennifer Dorow said in announcing her sentencing for the six counts of first-degree intentional homicide, which she said will be served consecutively.
Wednesday’s sentencing comes after dozens of victims of the attack confronted Brooks in angry, emotional statements on Tuesday.
Brooks and his family had raised his mental health issues in his defense. Though Dorow said his actions behind the wheel that day — including choosing to drive toward the parade despite multiple opportunities to avoid it — did not support a claim of mental illness, and that he acted “recklessly, carelessly and maliciously.”
“It is very clear to this court that he understands the difference between right and wrong, and he simply chooses to ignore his conscious,” Dorow said. “He is fueled by anger and rage.”
“Some people unfortunately choose a path of evil. And I think, Mr. Brooks, you are one of those such persons,” she continued.
The judge teared up talking about the footage from the scene.
“Those are images that frankly kept me up at night,” she said.
Dorow spoke about the impact on the victims, including their statements on Tuesday, before announcing her sentencing.
“This trial is unlike anything that I’ve ever been a part of,” she said. “The sheer magnitude of the crime, the number of people impacted, how they were impacted. The vicious, senseless nature of it.”
She highlighted his lack of remorse during a two-hour statement made in court ahead of his sentencing and criticized a “feeble attempt to blame mental health.”
“I waited for a true apology. I didn’t get it,” she said. “Not for my benefit, but for the victims.”
Brooks was removed from the courtroom during the judge’s sentencing remarks for what Dorow described as a “tirade” and placed in another courtroom with audio access to the proceedings. He was brought back for the sentencing, though the judge removed him again for failing to be orderly.
Prior to Dorow’s sentencing, several people spoke on Brooks’ behalf in Waukesha County court on Wednesday over Zoom, starting with his mother, Dawn Brooks.
“Jail is not the only answer,” she told the court. “Help, treatment, hospitalization and medication — it plays a big role in preventing this, where we are today, if it would have been offered sooner.”
She also read the Maya Angelou poem “Caged Bird.”
“Everyone who suffers from mental illness is caged. All they want is to be free of their illness and become mentally well,” she said, adding that she believes society has an obligation to help others through treatment and medication.
Brooks’ grandmother, Mary Edwards, told the court that he has suffered from bipolar disorder since the age of 12.
“It was that disorder that caused him to drive through that crowd,” she said. “It is my prayer that he will be treated for this illness.”
Court-ordered examinations diagnosed Brooks with antisocial personality disorder, according to Dorow.
Brooks himself addressed the court for over two hours in a wide-ranging, rambling statement that touched on his faith, upbringing, children and mental illness. At one point, he apologized for the incident, which he said was not “planned” or “plotted.”
“I want everyone to know, also the community of Waukesha, I want you to know that not only am I sorry for what happened, I’m sorry that you could not see what’s truly in my heart. That you cannot see the remorse that I have,” he said.
He also apologized to the judge for his antics and outbursts throughout the trial.
“Nothing about it was personal,” he said. “I think it was just the pot boiling over.”
At one point he asked to turn to address the victims in the gallery, which the judge denied.
“I don’t think they’re ready for that yet,” Dorow said.
A jury found Brooks, 40, guilty last month on all 76 counts, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide, for barreling his SUV into a Christmas parade on Nov. 21, 2021.
Those killed were Tamara Durand, 52; Wilhelm Hospel, 81; Jane Kulich, 52; Leanna Owen, 71; Virginia Sorenson, 79; and Jackson Sparks, 8.
When Dorow asked him what he thinks the court should do in regard to sentencing, Brooks said he did not understand the “true nature and cause of the charges.”
“I also believe a decision was already made before we even got here,” he said.
When asked what he thinks of a potential sentence of life without the possibility of parole, Brooks said he would like to go somewhere “where I can be helped.”
Addressing the court on Tuesday during the first day of the sentencing, survivors detailed how Brooks robbed them of their sense of personal safety, trust and peace and affected them physically and mentally. Parents recalled frantically searching for their children, and the injuries they endured in the attack. Family members honored the memory of those who were killed. Many who addressed the court asked for the maximum sentence possible.
Several of those who spoke in court were children who recounted the horror and long-lasting impact of that day.
“I know that I lost a piece of myself that day, and I’m still trying to find it,” one young victim who was dancing in the parade when the attack occurred told the court on Tuesday.
Another dancer who was injured in the parade spoke of being scared of cars at the bus stop.
“It is getting closer and closer to Nov. 21 and I don’t think I’m ready for this day to come,” the 12-year-old victim told the court on Tuesday. “On this day each year, I and many others will think of how a peaceful event that has been a tradition in Waukesha for over 50 years, and brought smiles and laughter to everyone, turned into tragedy.”
The sentencing hearing was briefly paused Tuesday morning after an unknown person threatened a mass shooting at the Waukesha County Courthouse, authorities said. The threat is under investigation and security at the courthouse was increased, the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office said.
Brooks was also briefly removed from the courtroom on Tuesday for what Dorow described as his continued “defiant behavior,” which had included shouting at and interrupting the judge and prosecutors.
Brooks initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease but withdrew the plea in September. He dismissed his public defenders during the trial and went on to represent himself.
Prior to the start of the trial, Brooks’ mother had written to the judge in September asking that he not be allowed to represent himself in court because “he is not stable mentally enough,” Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN reported at the time.
