A career criminal named Darrell Brooks Jr. was taken into custody following the deadly incident during a Christmas parade Sunday in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Brooks, 39, was identified as the driver of a red SUV that sped through the parade, killing five people and injuring 40 more, The Associated Press reported.
NBC News tweeted that law enforcement officials said Brooks "is the individual in custody as a person of interest and is being questioned by law enforcement in connection with the vehicle incident in Waukesha."
The Milwaukee resident was an amateur rapper who had been bailed out of jail less than 48 hours earlier, the Washington Examiner reported.
Fox News reported that Brooks had a criminal history dating back to 1999 that included numerous violent felonies.
The Examiner said Brooks faces charges in two open felony cases.
Brooks was charged Nov. 5 with resisting an officer (misdemeanor), bail jumping (felony), and second-degree recklessly endangering safety (felony) with domestic assessments, as well as disorderly conduct and battery (both misdemeanors, also with domestic abuse assessments), the Examiner said.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported a woman told police Brooks purposefully ran her "over with his vehicle" while she was walking through a gas station parking lot after he had followed her there after a fight. The woman was hospitalized for her injuries, court records show.
Brooks posted a $1,000 bond Friday.
He also was charged in July 2020 with two felony counts of second-degree recklessly endangering the safety of others using a dangerous weapon, the Journal-Sentinel reported.
Fox News said, based on a background check from Wisconsin's Department of Justice, Brooks faced more than 50 pages of charges stretching back decades. He received his first felony conviction in 1999 for taking part in an aggravated battery. He received three years of probation, records show.
The records also showed Brooks was convicted of obstructing an officer in 2003 and 2005, and he faced a felony marijuana charge in 2002.
The Examiner reported a Facebook page belonging to Brooks included comments about the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was found not guilty on Friday on five criminal charges after shooting three attackers during a riot, killing two and injuring a third.
Brooks raps under the name MathBoi Fly and had a YouTube channel with music rap videos that has since been deleted but was saved by Heavy.com, the Examiner reported.