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Don Carmignani: Ex-fire commissioner beaten by homeless man bear-sprayed people in 8 separate attacks

Don Carmignani was hospitalized after a homeless man named Garret Doty attacked him with a rod

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: A former San Francisco fire commissioner who was brutally beaten by a homeless man was reportedly caught on camera spraying homeless people with bear spray in the years before the attack. Don Carmignani was beaten with a rod by Garret Doty, against whom charges were later dropped. Doty said he had acted in self-defense. 

Public defender Kleigh Hathaway, who represents Doty, has reportedly said that 52-year-old Carmignani carried out at least eight attacks between November 2021 and January 2022. According to Hathaway, Camignani was holding a can of a chemical irritant when he was attacked by Doty - the same kind of container he was seen carrying in surveillance videos of his other attacks, The San Francisco Standard reports. “This is exactly like the can that he had during the assault with my client,” Hathaway said.

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'He is terrorizing homeless people'

The video shows a man walking with a container in his hand, with a homeless man sleeping on the side of the road. The man calmly sprays the person on the face and walks away. “He is terrorizing (homeless people) with a 10-inch can of bear spray, not pepper spray. He sprayed anything and everything, including my client,” Hathaway said, San Francisco Chronicle reports. 

Carmignani has denied being the person seen in the footage. He said in an interview with CBS Bay Area that the attack on him was unprovoked. He said it took place when he confronted a group of homeless people camped outside his mother’s home in the Marina District, and asked them to move. "When I was running away, the impact hit my skull," he said. "They cracked my jaw from here all the way down and they put a plate in from here all the way here." 

"I didn’t go out there to fight anyone. I’m trying to get them down the road, go to the park," Carmignani said. "It’s three-on-one. I know the odds. I’m 52 years old. I have two hip replacements. I’m an old guy, I could have been a dead guy." After the attack, he was left with a fractured skull and other serious injuries. 

Charges were dropped against Garret Doty

Doty, 24, was initially arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with serious bodily injury, and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. The charges, however, were later dropped. 

"The district attorney and the police have now reason to believe that Mr Carmignani was involved in eight - eight - separate acts of violence," said Hathaway. "These eight separate acts of violence were perpetrated against people who are homeless. The district attorney and the police gave us, the defense, yesterday, these police reports because they believe these acts are related to Mr Carmignan."