Milwaukee mayor attacked while aiding woman, child

MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett remained hospitalized Sunday after a man attacked him with a metal pipe as the mayor tried to assist a grandmother screaming for help near the Wisconsin State Fair.

Barrett, 55, was in stable condition at a local hospital with a fractured hand and other head and hand wounds, official said.

The mayor had gone to the fair outside Milwaukee on Saturday night with his sister, two daughters and a niece. As the group left and walked to Barrett’s car, they heard a woman screaming for someone to call 911, police said.

Police said the woman was a grandmother who was trying to protect her 1-year-old granddaughter from a 20-year-old man, an assault authorities characterized as a domestic dispute.

“The mayor stopped and said something (to the man) like, ‘Let’s all cool down here, I’m going to call 911,’ ” said Patrick Curley, the mayor’s spokesman. “He said it one or two times according to him. When he took out his phone, that’s when the suspect attacked him.”

The man hit Barrett in the head and torso with a metal pipe. Barrett apparently fought back, fracturing his hand when he punched the suspect.

The attacker fled the area when he heard sirens. A suspect was arrested on Sunday at a Milwaukee home, and police recovered the alleged weapon. The woman and baby were uninjured.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said authorities had no reason to believe the attacker knew it was the mayor he was assaulting.