Man choked unconscious outside bar, complaint says

A 36-year-old man was charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court last week with choking a man until he lost consciousness during an unprovoked attack outside a Port Washington bar in May.

Gordon J. Zastrow of Port Washington faces one felony count of strangulation and suffocation and misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct.

According to the criminal complaint, police officers who were called to Rascal’s Tavern at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, May 30, found the victim outside the bar. He was drifting in and out of consciousness and was bloody.

Also outside the bar was Zastrow, who was with a group of people walking away from the bar who police described as agitated.

Zastrow, whose knees were bloody and appeared highly intoxicated, told officers the victim jumped him as he and his family were leaving the bar and admitted putting him in the type of chokehold used to render a person unconscious to protect his family, the complaint states.

Witnesses, however, gave a different account of the incident.

They said Zastrow and members of his family were arguing in the bar and eventually he and his wife went outside where the dispute continued. They said Zastrow became more enraged when he realized people, including the victim who was just arriving at the tavern, were watching them, according to the complaint.

Witnesses said Zastrow quickly approached the victim, then wrestled with him and put him in a chokehold until the man lost consciousness, the complaint states.

Two of the victim’s friends gave similar accounts, adding that the attack was unprovoked.

Surveillance video from the bar and a next door business shows Zastrow confronting the victim, then during an altercation putting him in a chokehold from behind, according to the complaint.

The video shows the man goes limp after about 14 seconds and that Zastrow continues choking him while lying on top of him for another 25 seconds until bystanders intervened, the complaint states.

A warrant has been issued for Zastrow’s arrest.