The San Francisco district attorney’s office is criminally charging the two men involved in the alley brawl with Mayor Daniel Lurie’s police security detail last week, the prosecutor’s office announced today.
At the same time, the city’s police accountability agency also confirmed today that it has opened an investigation into the officers involved in the fight. The police officer serving as Lurie’s bodyguard may have gotten physical first, according to surveillance video that surfaced online the day after the incident.
Mission Local was the only news outlet at the scene and was the first to report the incident.
Tony Shervaughn Phillips, 44, and Abraham Simon, 33, were both arrested at the scene on Thursday and are expected to be arraigned tomorrow on various charges.
Phillips is charged with resisting an executive officer and causing great bodily injury, assault on a police officer, and contempt of court. The latter charge stems from an earlier case that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said prohibited Phillips from being in the very area where the alleyway melee occurred.
Videos of the incident showed Phillips and Simon standing near the corner of Cedar and Larkin streets, at the edge of the Tenderloin, on Thursday afternoon as Lurie and his bodyguard spoke with them. The mayor and his security team had been driving through the neighborhood.
In one video posted to TikTok, Phillips appears to try walking past the bodyguard when the officer abruptly shoves him to the ground. Phillips starts to fight back, the video shows, and ultimately slams the officer to the ground. The officer was later observed bleeding out of the back of his head where it hit the pavement.
The second video, which Mission Local obtained and was widely shared online, shows the incident only after the officer made first contact.
After watching the scuffle for some time, Simon also got involved, as did another officer who worked as Lurie’s driver.
The DA’s office charged Simon with resisting or obstructing a police officer.
Jenkins said she will seek to keep Phillips detained, because of his violation of a past court order and “assaultive conduct that does present public safety risk.”
The officers involved in the incident have not been named, but one officer at the scene said in a statement that the man came at him before the interaction became violent.
The Department of Police Accountability, a civilian body that looks into civilian complaints against officers, will now investigate.
In a statement, Lurie thanked Jenkins and said he hoped the two men would be held accountable, and added that he would still be out on the streets of San Francisco.
When Mission Local spoke to Lurie at the scene, he said that two men had tried to fight with police officers, but did not mention that his bodyguards initiated contact. Lurie is seen looking on as the tussle starts.
“Since my first day as mayor, public safety has been my top priority, and our police officers work every day to keep San Francisco safe for our kids, families, and small-business owners,” Lurie said.
“Our administration will keep working hard to hire more law enforcement officers, drive down crime, and tackle the city’s behavioral health challenges.”
Reportedly Lurie decided to intervene with Philips who was blocking traffic, and it got out of control. I suppose if we let him be Mayor with no experience, I can see how he would feel entitled to play first responder with no qualifications either.
The video shows Phillips wasn’t even blocking traffic.
I give the cops zero benefit of the doubt. Besides, no matter what words were said, the video makes clear that the cop made the first aggressive move. And why is the Mayor cosplaying a social worker? This business of walking the streets is pure theater.
DPA will interview the Mayor as a witness to this altercation. The mayor will be required to cooperate with the DPA investigation pursuant to city charter requirements that city employees are required to cooperate with DPA investigations.
people are allowed to defend themselves. if that entitled POS bodyguard initiated physical altercation HE should be charged, and the civilians should get an apology and all med bills paid for st a minimum
Two systems of justice – one for the public and one for cops – is never going to ensure that cops are held accountable to the public.
City Famiglia: If you drop the civil cases, then the criminal cases go away.
This mayor is a gaffe a minute. Seriously what a loser.