Local cannabis entrepreneur and former San Francisco Fire Department Commissioner Don Carmignani was hospitalized after he was beaten by two men after an altercation outside his mother’s Marina home on Wednesday night.
“My son Don was beaten with a steel pipe by two men on Laguna Street and Lombard Street last night,” reads a Nextdoor post by Carmignani’s mother, Joan, thanked the neighbors who got involved, ended the fight and called 911. “If they weren’t there, my son would be dead!”
“He’s in the hospital with a fractured skull, a broken jaw and lots of lacerations,” added Carmignani’s mother.
The San Francisco Police Department confirmed that at 5:20 p.m. a man was attacked with a metal object in Laguna, near Magnolia Street, and was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A suspect has been arrested.
“Right now, one of my dear friends is in the hospital after being attacked by a homeless man with a metal pipe in the marina last night,” San Francisco supervisor Catherine Stefani, whose District 2 covers the marina, said at a city meeting Thursday.
Stefani explained that Don Carmignani’s mother called the police because homeless people were taking drugs outside her door and wouldn’t leave. When the police didn’t respond, her son came to speak to the men outside her door and was attacked.
“We’re short of 55 officers at North Station. It’s a real thing,” said Stefani, who said Carmignani’s sister-in-law is her daughter’s teacher. “It’s not scaremongering… I’ve been here for 21 years and it hasn’t happened before. I think it’s a direct result of not having enough officers on our street.”
Ali Jamalian, a friend of Carmignani and head of Sunset Connect dispensary and the city’s cannabis regulatory committee, said: “There were two guys smoking meth or crack outside his mother’s house like they were blocking the entrance and she is late seventies. ”
He said the same men had been hanging out there for a while. “And I think the Bulls wouldn’t come out, despite some complaints from others. When he went out and asked them to move away, they attacked him.”
“He’s a very well-known local cannabis entrepreneur,” Jamalian said. “He’s always been a pro-cannabis landlord and a fighter for the cause. And he’s a local boy – Sacred Heart, third generation, a wonderful man.”
Mayor Ed Lee appointed Carmignani to the Fire Department Commission in 2013, but resigned after just four months following an arrest for domestic violence crimes. According to a 2016 SF Weekly report, he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to a fine, probation and counseling.
He then received several cannabis licenses from the city and became an early key player in the city’s business when California relaxed regulations on the drug.
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