‘Hot Cop’ arrested in hit-and-run

Castro district officer had been the subject of photo that went viral

SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco Police Department officer who last year became famously known at the Castro’s “Hot Cop” after a photo of him in uniform went viral, was arrested Sunday in connection with a hit-and-run crash that left two men in the hospital with serious injuries, police said.

Christopher Kohrs, 38, was arrested and booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of felony hit-and-run.

Police said a Dodge Charger that Kohrs was driving struck two pedestrians, both men in their 40s, around 2 a.m. Sunday as they crossed Broadway Street near Montgomery Street. He was not on duty at the time, police said.

After striking the two men, Kohrs fled the scene, police said. The men were hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening injuries. It was not immediately clear whether drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash, and an SFPD spokesman did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Kohrs became an Internet sensation — eventually appearing on national media outlets — last year after a photograph of him guarding a San Francisco construction site yielded tens of thousands of likes and comments on social media, regarding his good looks. Buzzfeed called him “the hottest cop ever,” and ABC’s Good Morning America did a segment on the officer as well.

Ironically, Kohrs’ photo was touted as law enforcement’s answer to Jeremy Meeks, a Stockton man who was offered a modeling contract after his mug shot photo went viral, earning him the media nickname “hot convict.”

San Francisco police said they would not release a booking photo of Kohrs Sunday evening, “pending identification matters.”

After he became famous, Kohrs granted media interviews and even began doing shirtless photoshoots. A Facebook fan page in his name had more than 52,000 likes as of Sunday evening.

According to records released by SFPD, Kohrs’ salary and benefits cost taxpayers $195,004 last year.