The scene in Waukesha Sunday.Photo: City of Waukesha
Amid the chaos that erupted at Sunday’s Waukesha Christmas Parade, David Simmons, a pastor at St. Matthias Episcopal Church, heard gunshots. Then he sprung into action, pulling children off the street and into his church.
It was a harrowing experience for all involved, especially the children, many of whom were separated from their parents for more than two hours until the tragic scene, at which five people died and 48 were injured, was stabilized.
“When we were bringing the kids in and many of them were crying and didn’t know what was going on,” Simmons says. “The young ones didn’t know what was going on, and were terrified. The older ones knew what was going on, and were terrified because they’d all been through active shooter drills before.”
The doors to the church are always open during the annual holiday parade. Situated at the beginning of the parade route, it’s a place where people can come in and warm up from the cold or use the restroom.
“We’re always right there,” Simmons says.
“[Brooks] was going really fast,” Simmons remembers, “He was laying on his horn pretty hard.”
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Police fired their weapons at the SUV, and then a police officer near the church said that everybody needed to get off the street.
“We just started pulling people into the church,” Simmons says.
Many were children separated from their parents.
The parade’s young baton team sought refuge in the church, Simmons says — but they were without their parents.
“Their parents were almost all down at the other end of the parade route and were sheltering in place in a completely different place,” Simmons says. “So there was a lot of phone calling, a lot of handing around of cell phones so that parents could know that their kids were in a safe place. But it took about two, two and a half hours for the parents to finally be allowed to leave and then come to pick up their kids.”
Watching parents reunite with children they had been separated from was “heart-wrenching,” Simmons says.
“I was not there where the casualties were occurring. So for me, the heart-wrenching part was watching some of these parents whohadbeen down in the area where the stuff happened, coming in and just grabbing their kids and not letting go,” Simmons says.
source: people.com
