Those who live near the entrance to the Kinnickinnic River Trail in Milwaukee told WTMJ-TV it’s well known that motorcyclists use the trail even despite posted signs prohibiting motor vehicles upon it.
Image source: WTMJ-TV video screenshot
One of those residents, Gary Hartung, recently heard six motorcyclists leaving the trail just steps from his home near the trail’s entrance, the station said.
With that, Hartung recorded a video of motorcyclists while telling them to stop traveling on the pedestrian-bicycle path, WTMJ reported.
Image source: WTMJ-TV video screenshot
“I watched them as much as I could, trying to get plates or faces or anything, and then I walked among them, and one guy just punched me; I was out, knocked out,” he recounted to the station.
Hartung told WTMJ the motorcyclist hit him multiple times — and now he’s nursing a broken nose, split lip, and a badly bruised eye and face; doctors say his face will take a month to heal.
Image source: WTMJ-TV video screenshot
Police are investigating the attack and looking for suspects, the station said. But it won’t be easy, as Hartung told WTMJ many of the motorcyclists didn’t have license plates on their rides.
Hartung’s wife, Laura, reached out to the station after the attack in order to shine a light on the public safety issue: “I want these people accountable. I want the community to stay together and to speak up, to be safe and protect each other.”
Image source: WTMJ-TV video screenshot
She explained to WTMJ that she uses the trail daily and sees how dangerous the motorcyclists on the trail can be: “It’s just disappointing that we cannot be safe, or we cannot do any activity on a space that is for cyclists and pedestrians.”
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