Two men attacked San Francisco mayor’s bodyguards, authorities say

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two men attacked a pair of police officers who were serving as bodyguards for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, officials said. Lurie was unharmed.

The suspects, who were taken into custody, were part of a group blocking Lurie and his security team’s vehicle Thursday evening in the troubled Tenderloin neighborhood. The men became violent after one of the officers asked them to move, witnesses told Mission Local, a San Francisco news organization.

A video obtained by the news outlet shows one of the bodyguards dressed in a suit in a struggle with a man who throws him to the ground.

It was unclear what Lurie was doing in the Tenderloin, a problem spot for public drug use and dealing, but he often walks around the city talking to residents.

Lurie told reporters Friday he was traveling in his SUV with his bodyguards when he saw people standing in the middle of the street and he stopped to ask them to move, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“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 he is doing well.

San Francisco police officers responded to the scene after receiving a request for backup from Lurie’s bodyguards, who said they were in a physical altercation with two unidentified men, the police department said in a statement.

The officers had non-life-threatening injuries and were treated by paramedics at the scene, the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

The 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.