Parishioners gather to remember 13-year-old Halle Wagner, who was killed by object in parade float
The family of 13-year-old Halle Wagner have been told that she has been released from hospital and are now trying to come to terms with what happened.
A woman in her 80s was also killed in the incident on Friday in the town of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and there were also multiple injuries.
Waukesha police said in a statement they were treating it as an “isolated incident” and not a terrorist act. One of the injured 13-year-olds was released from hospital on Saturday and the remaining eight people remained in critical condition.
The police said the victims were “shocked and surprised by the object” that hit them. The incident took place when 13-year-old Wagner was sitting on a floats which were carrying children and adults selling snow on the south side of the town.
Area residents gathered on Saturday to remember the girl.
Halle’s mother told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that they were “grieving the fact that she won’t be here forever”. Her grandfather, Fred Allen, told the paper: “We’ve had a lot of people come up to me to say that she’s going to be so missed. It’s sad that this happened to a kid, an innocent, and she was such a good kid.”
The victims were in wheelchairs, police said. Several people were taken to hospital with serious injuries after the object was thrown from a motorbike on top of one of the floats and struck Wagner.
Police said they were questioning the motorbike rider and a 28-year-old motorcyclist, believed to be the driver of the motorbike. Both were white and had darker-coloured hair. The motorcycle rider was not wearing a helmet, police said.
The town of Waukesha is also a twin city with the district where one of the hit-and-run drivers lives.
Police continue to investigate the incident. The incident has been posted on a Twitter account from the area, and it is rapidly gaining attention across the country.
The Washington Post reporter Alexandra Petri, who has a home in Waukesha, offered her thoughts in a tweet: “Many thanks to all for their messages of support. I just told my husband, in town tonight, that I didn’t know what I was going to say. People are talking a lot about this.”