Editor's note: Video above is from a previous story.
The man accused of driving his SUV through a suburban Milwaukee parade, killing six people and injuring dozens, says he feels like he's being “demonized."
Darrell Brooks didn't discuss a motive during his interview from jail with Fox News. But he told the outlet Wednesday that he feels like he's being portrayed as a monster.
Brooks' mother, Dawn Woods, released a letter Wednesday offering the family's condolences to the victims and saying that Brooks suffers from mental health issues.
"We are not making excuses but we believe what has happened is because he was not given the help and resources he needed. Institutions that are equipped and have trained staff is what was needed as well as resources in the communities where people who suffer with mental illness live," Woods wrote in part in the letter, first reported by CBS 58.
She said after he became an adult he lacked the insurance or financial means to continue his medication.
“Mental illness is real and the system is broken. It can and must be fixed NOW, not next year or with new legislation- NOW. So many like Darrell that have fallen through the cracks because of a broken system that no one cared to address, can get the help they so desperately need,” Woods wrote in the letter, according to CBS 58.
You can read Woods' full letter here.
No motive has been given for Brooks as to why he plowed his SUV into a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee. Six people were killed and more than 60 people were injured. But it may not matter what his motive is if he goes to trial. Legal experts say the evidence strongly supports intentional homicide charges that would mean life in prison.
Former Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher said it might be difficult to prove intent with the first person Brooks struck, “but when he kept going and knowing what he had done to the first person and didn’t stop, then it was all intentional.”