Milwaukee man attacked in Riverwest early Sunday morning suffered brain bleed and broken jaw

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee Police are investigating an early Sunday morning attack in Riverwest that left a man with severe head trauma, brain bleeding and a broken jaw. The victim, 31-year-old Fraser Hartig, says he was walking home on Humboldt after a night out when he was attacked.

Hartig says he was just walking past the Uptowner bar sometime after 3 a.m., and the next thing he remembered was waking up on the sidewalk covered in blood.

When CBS 58 reached out to Hartig, he didn’t want to show his face on camera due to the horrific attack. He says when it happened he didn’t remember a thing.

”I woke up on the sidewalk covered in blood,” said Hartig. “I knew that I needed help, I didn’t know why, but I just knew that I needed help.”

After waking up on the sidewalk, Hartig said he made it to someone’s porch and passed out again. When he woke up a second time, he flagged down a car. Hartig’s phone, cash, credit cards and IDs were all taken from him.

“I flagged down a car, and since I was full of blood, that guy called the cops,” said Hartig.  

Doctors say Hartig suffered severe trauma to his head and he could’ve been hit with a blunt object. Hartig says he was in so much shock after the attack, he couldn’t feel any pain.

“I don’t think I was out of shock until I was well at the hospital,” he says.

Hartig posted on Facebook warning his neighborhood to be cautious, but not afraid.

”Fear is not a good place to go to,” said Hartig. “What keeps us humans strong is our sense of community.”

Hartig is going in for a jaw surgery Thursday and expects his jaw to be wired shut for the next five weeks.

He says moving forward he will focus on healing and continue to live his life without fear, regardless of the circumstance.

”I try not to panic in situations like this, because if you do panic, things just get worse,” he adds.

District 3 Alderman, Nik Kovak, has been made aware of the attack,  and asks anyone with information on the Sunday morning attack to please relay information to police.