Homeless hero rescues SF cop during attack

After a four-day manhunt, San Francisco police officers finally located a homeless man suspected of kindness and bravery.

On Friday, police at Ingleside Station gathered to formally thank 35-year-old Ryan Raso for rescuing a police officer who was attacked during an arrest.

The incident happened Monday evening after a woman was reportedly vandalizing cars near the 4700 block of Mission Street.

Sgt. Eli Turner told KGO-TV a police officer arrived on scene shortly after 7 p.m. to find:

“… a woman jumping up and down on cars, denting them, vandalizing them.”

After unsuccessfully attempting to calm down the suspect, the officer tried to arrest the woman.

That’s when the suspect became increasing agitated and attacked the officer, said police.

Raso, who was crossing the street, witnessed the struggle:

“The person had the officer kind of in a choke hold, was kind of, had the officer against the wall, kind of banging, beating her head into the wall.”

A small crowd gathered to watch, but no one stepped up to help the officer, said Raso:

“A law enforcement officer is saying, ‘help me, help me’ when there’s no one else around doing anything.”

That’s when Raso, whose father was a detective in New York, sprung into action.

He lunged at the attacker as she reached for the police officer’s gun, and wrestled the woman down until police backup arrived.

Upon talking to Raso, they learned that he was homeless and had been struggling in recent months. Police are trying to find shelter for Raso, and have even chipped in to replace his headphones that broke during the entanglement.

Turner told KGO-TV:

“We wanted to reach out to him and let him know he has friends.”

Raso has been modest about his heroism:

“An officer was being beaten up, a human; so I just did what’s right, you know.”