Mayor Daniel Lurie’s police security detail was attacked at the edge of the Tenderloin on Thursday evening just before 6 p.m., according to witnesses and a video obtained by Mission Local.
The mayor was unharmed. One unidentified San Francisco police officer, who was part of Lurie’s security team and was in the black SUV used to ferry Lurie around alongside the mayor and his driver, was left bleeding from the back of his head.
He panted as he spoke to Mission Local and gave a statement to fellow police officers who responded to the scene.
The officer said that three people blocked the car shortly prior to the attack, and that Lurie “hopped out” to ask them to move. They began to “comply,” the officer told his fellow cops, but, at some point, one man began “talking gibberish.”
The officer then intervened and asked the man to move out of the way. The man did at first, but then came at him, he told officers.
The officer held onto the man’s upper body and then “fell back” with the man on top of him, and hit his head on the pavement as he fell.
Video obtained by Mission Local shows the officer interlocked with the man, and Lurie calmly looking on before walking away. The man tussles with the officer and then slams him to the ground and attempts to move on top of him.
Lurie’s driver, also a police officer, was preoccupied with another man, though he did not appear injured. It is not clear if the second man attacked anyone. It is also unclear what happened with the third person the police officer on the mayoral security detail mentioned initially.
The alleged attacker was handcuffed by officers on Thursday and repeatedly shouted, “Fuck you!” as he was arrested. The second suspect tried to flee but was apprehended by police up the block on Larkin closer to Post Street.
A dozen or more police officers surrounded and stood over the two handcuffed men after the incident. Lurie looked on, appearing distressed, at the edge of Cedar Street, a trash-strewn, alley-like road between Geary and Post streets off Larkin Street.
Lurie told Mission Local that the men had tried to fight a police officer, but declined to say anything more.
The San Francisco Police Department, in a statement, said its officers responded to Cedar and Polk streets at 5:38 p.m. and arrested two men. Two officers who were part of the security detail had non-life-threatening injuries, it said.
Louis Wong, the president of the the San Francisco Police Officers Association, said he was “grateful that the officers assigned to the mayor’s security detail acted swiftly and courageously to protect him in a dangerous and unpredictable situation.”
“We wish our injured officer a full and speedy recovery and commend all involved for their bravery and decisive actions,” he added.
