San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is taking heat for his apathetic-seeming response to an assault on a member of his security detail — as the attacker behind the brutal body slam is revealed to have never faced charges over an arrest on suspicion of murder.
San Francisco police apprehended two suspects, Tony Phillips and Abraham Simon, after the bloody skirmish Thursday near the troubled Tenderloin neighborhood.
In a video obtained by Mission Local, Lurie is shown, hands in pockets, briefly observing the scuffle between his security guard and Phillips before he simply “peaced out” of the chaotic scene, one X user observed.
A person can be heard at the end of the video saying, “Where did the mayor go?”
Video obtained by Mission Local shows a police officer, part of Mayor Lurie’s security detail, tussling with a man in the Tenderloin.
The mayor looks on before walking away.
The man then slams the officer to the ground, & tries to get on top of him. https://t.co/4x32vFGn2g pic.twitter.com/y2bIMixZlc
— Mission Local (@MLNow) March 6, 2026
“Watch how the Mayor just sort of walks off while his own security detail member gets mogged by a criddler. What a complete coward,” wrote an X user called Greg Koenig.
“The mayor doesn’t even try and help his employee which is such an insight to his operating system,” another critic weighed in.
Mark Fabela, another X user, posted a video of a 2024 scuffle involving San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan’s security detail, in which the mayor looked on as his guard was pummeled.
“Two mayors. Two fights. Same leadership style: stand there and watch.”
A source familiar with the Thursday incident said the mayor was walking away to fetch another member of the detail for backup.
In 2019, Phillips was detained on suspicion of murder for allegedly stabbing a man to death in a fight not far from the Thursday incident with Lurie’s security detail.
Police said Phillips stabbed a 42-year-old man after an early-morning altercation in the Polk Gulch neighborhood on Aug. 16, 2019. The victim was found bleeding on the sidewalk and later died of his injuries.
Then-District Attorney George Gascon tossed out Phillips’ murder case due to a lack of evidence, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
The incident was caught on surveillance video, the paper reported.
The Thursday incident broke out when Lurie asked people crowding the street to move, according to Mission Local.
Things quickly took a turn when one man began “talking gibberish,” the officer said.
When the officer stepped in and ordered the man to move along, the suspect initially backed off — then came at him
The two tussled and the officer was eventually slammed to the ground.
Phillips was handcuffed at the scene and repeatedly shouted, “F—k you!” as officers arrested him. The second suspect tried to run but was apprehended.
