Former San Francisco fire commissioner is being investigated for being linked to a series of attacks on homeless people who were sprayed with bear spray, The San Francisco Standard reported.
Don Carmignani was assaulted by a homeless person and hospitalized with serious injuries on April 5. Police later arrested 24-year-old Garret Doty, who faces assault and battery charges. But now, police say they have reports and videos from several other incidents in the area in which a man, which Doty’s defense attorneys say is Carmignani, bear-spraying homeless people, throwing the case against Doty into question.
One video shows a man walking up to a person who is asleep on a sidewalk in November 2021. The man sprays the person in the face with either bear spray or pepper spray. The suspect, who was wearing a baseball cap and medical mask, then casually walks away.
Kleigh Hathaway, the public defender representing Doty, said the man in the video appears to be Carmignani, adding that Carmignani used a similar can of bear spray against Doty before he fought back in self defense. Now she wants the charges against her client dropped.
“Police have reason to believe Carmignani was involved in eight separate acts of violence perpetrated against people who are homeless,” said Kleigh Hathaway, SF Public Defender.
Watch the video below:
EXCLUSIVE: Defense attorneys for the man accused of attacking former SF Fire Commissioner Don Carmignani say the person shown in this video bear spraying a homeless person in the face appears to be Carmignani.
The video, taken in November 2021, is part of a trove of new evidence… pic.twitter.com/tLaUqqDGjP
— The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) April 26, 2023
