The incident, captured in part on video, drew attention to safety conditions in the Tenderloin, a neighborhood with documented open drug use and dealing, and to the risks facing the mayor’s security detail during his frequent street-level outreach.
Two men attacked a pair of police officers serving as bodyguards for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie on Thursday evening in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood, officials said Friday. Lurie was unharmed. Both officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were treated by paramedics at the scene.
The suspects, who were taken into custody, were part of a group that had been blocking Lurie’s vehicle and his security team. The men became violent after one of the officers asked the group to move, witnesses told Mission Local, a San Francisco news organization. A video obtained by Mission Local shows one of the bodyguards, dressed in a suit, in a struggle with a man who throws him to the ground.
Lurie told reporters Friday that he had been traveling in his SUV with his bodyguards when he saw people standing in the middle of the street and stopped.
“I feel like the people who are on our streets are part of my business,” Lurie said. “I was worried about them, and I was worried about (the) safety of pedestrians and cars coming.”
Lurie confirmed that one of the bodyguards “sustained an injury to the head” but said the officer is doing well. The San Francisco Police Department said both officers had non-life-threatening injuries.
Additional police officers responded after receiving a backup request from Lurie’s bodyguards, who reported they were in a physical altercation with two unidentified men, the department said in a statement.
The two men were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a peace officer with a deadly weapon, resisting a peace officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, and other charges, the department said.
The Tenderloin is a neighborhood with documented open drug use and dealing. Lurie frequently visits it and other parts of the city to speak with residents.