Two San Francisco police officers tore a 65-year-old man’s rotator cuff when they mistakenly grabbed him after his wife called for help amid an outburst by the couple’s son-in-law, according to a federal lawsuit.

Melchor Javier Ortega sued the city Thursday, saying the two unidentified officers used excessive force when they encountered him July 11 in his Bayview home.

The city attorney’s office said it had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. The city responded to Ortega’s administrative claim in January, denying any liability.

At the time of the incident, Ortega and his wife, Elena, lived on the top level of a two-story home while his daughter, her husband and their children lived on the lower level.

According to the lawsuit, Ortega and his wife heard their son-in-law and daughter arguing, and Ortega, knowing that his son-in-law could become violent when he drank alcohol, tried to calm him down.

After speaking to his son-in-law, Ortega left to buy plastic pipe for home repairs, the suit states. But the argument continued while he was gone, and his wife, who had gone downstairs, saw their son-in-law throw a pan of cooking oil.

Elena Ortega called police, describing her son-in-law as “a tall, fair-skinned, bald man.” Her husband returned home and was in the garage cutting the plastic pipe with a handsaw, when officers arrived, the lawsuit says.

She let the two officers in, and as she closed a door and gate behind them, they walked ahead and opened the inside door to the garage, the suit states.

The first officer grabbed Melchor Ortega’s left arm “without announcing himself or saying a word,” while the second officer grabbed his other arm, the suit alleges. It states that both officers twisted his arms until he heard a “pop” and felt pain in his left shoulder.

“You’re breaking my arm!” he recounted saying. His wife yelled for the two officers to stop and pointed them to the in-law unit, where they found and arrested the Ortegas’ son-in-law.

Melchor Ortega, a retired truck driver, said doctors told him he needs surgery to reattach the rotator cuff tendon to the bone by inserting screws in the bone and muscle, followed by months of recovery and physical therapy.

Rachel Lederman, his attorney, said her client did not fit the suspect description. Instead of being tall and bald, he is short with a full head of hair.

“It’s an example of poor training and overreaction by San Francisco police officers,” Lederman said. “My client didn’t match the description at all, and they simply burst in and immediately used a high degree of force on him when he actually wasn’t even the person they were looking for. He wasn’t resisting. He’s quite a mild-mannered person, and there was no reason for them to jerk his arm back so forcefully that they damaged the tendon.”

According to the lawsuit, the officers’ supervisor apologized to Melchor Ortega and offered to call him an ambulance. But they purportedly told him he’d have to pay for the ambulance himself.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: VivianHo