An update on Mayor Tom Barrett

Here’s the latest update on the Tom Barrett situation:

A baton-wielding man hit Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett so hard in the face that the blow knocked out a bottom tooth at the base and some top teeth.

Barrett’s hand was shattered and repaired in a three-hour surgery. A doctor placed stitches in the mayor’s head, and he had plastic surgery to repair another cut that extended from his cheek to his nose.

John Barrett, the mayor’s brother, gave the more detailed account of the mayor’s injuries Monday and said family members were hopeful that Barrett would be able to leave Froedtert Hospital and return home soon.

He said the assailant had threatened to use a gun during the altercation Saturday night and then punched the 55-year-old mayor so hard in the stomach that he buckled.

The man then told Barrett to lie face down on the ground.

“This is when Tom thinks ‘Yikes, this guy could kill me,’ ” John Barrett said.

At that point the mayor came up swinging and the assailant, Anthony J. Peters, opened up an extendable, police-style baton and started beating him, John Barrett said.

It’s also worth noting that according to an earlier report in the Journal Sentinel, Barrett told his sister to take his two daughters out of harm’s way before confronting the man and then calling 911. I know a commenter on this very blog opined that Mayor Barrett recklessly endangered the lives of his children to “play the hero,” but it seems that’s not actually the case.