San Francisco cops search for suspect in sucker punch attack on dad

Authorities in San Francisco asked the public for help in identifying the person who nearly killed a father of two out on a date night. (SFPD)

Authorities in San Francisco are searching for the suspect in the brutal sucker-punch attack that left a father of two clinging to life after a rare date night with his wife in the city.

Police released surveillance video of the Sept. 8 attack that they said shows Chris Mathews approach a white vehicle he believed was his Lyft driver, NBC Bay Area reported.

The black-and-white video is not clear, but a person can be seen exiting the car at about 11:30 p.m., and throwing a punch at the 39-year-old. Mathews falls directly back onto the pavement.

Rebecca Mathews, his wife, held her husband and said there was a lot blood coming out of the back of his head, ears and nose. She told The San Francisco Chronicle that they were waiting for a ride to “that one last bar to get that one last drink before we went home.”

Rebecca and Christopher Mathews seen in an undated photo. (GoFundMe)

The paper reported that Mathews—an insurance underwriter-- suffered several fractures and bleeding on his brain and in his brain stem. When he woke up—four days later—he had trouble remembering his wife and his children, 2 and 4 years old. He has been improving, but his short-term memory is still off.

“I hope he can go back to work one day,” she told the paper. “I hope he can be the father I know he can be to our kids. But the brain is a different type of injury. There’s no time frame for it.”

Chris Mathews seen in an undated photo. (GoFundMe)

Authorities on Friday released details on the suspect and a sketch. They said he sped off in a white, four-door sedan.

"It's scary I do hope we find him because I don't want him to harm anyone else but it's not going to help with recovery of my husband and what he has to go through," she told the station.