Former San Francisco metropolis official attacked homeless individual with bear spray minutes previous to steel pipe assault, public defender says

The suspect, accused of using a metal pipe to attack a former San Francisco fire officer, was released from custody on Thursday and is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing at the end of May.
Former San Francisco Fire Department Commissioner Don Carmignani suffered serious injuries after he was attacked with a metal pipe by a suspect outside his mother’s San Francisco home in early April, according to prosecutors. According to the prosecutor, Carmignani was therefore unable to testify in the preliminary hearing on Thursday.
The judge on the case granted the prosecution’s request to postpone the hearing to May 23 and released suspect Garret Doty, whom San Francisco police had charged with assault with a deadly weapon, from prison.
Kleigh Hathaway, Doty’s public defender, claims her client was not the attacker in the incident but rather protected himself from the former firefighter, who she says attacked several homeless people with bear spray, including Doty.
Hathaway also released surveillance video, which she says showed Carmignani attacking Doty with bear spray minutes before Carmignani was attacked with the metal pipe.
On April 5, Carmignani called 911 to report three homeless people at a camp outside his mother’s home in the affluent Marina neighborhood, he said in a statement to CNN.
“That evening I arrived at my mother’s house and told these individuals to leave,” Carmignani said in the statement. “The incident culminated in one of the people pulling out a piece of metal pipe and hitting me on the head several times.”
Carmignani was hospitalized and underwent emergency surgery, his statement said.
Carmignani’s attorney, Samuel Ray, said in a statement that the San Francisco Police Department did not respond to the morning call about people camping outside his client’s home and that “no one from the SFPD or the DA’s office ever conducted an interview or attempted to conduct an interview.” Don on his version of events.”
CNN questioned SFPD about Ray’s allegation. The District Attorney says the SFPD has requested an interview on multiple occasions.
Other homeless victims, says the public defender
Video from outside a gas station shared by Camignani’s lawyer appears to show the former firefighter trying to defend himself while being hit by a man with a metal pole. The video does not show the moments before the altercation.
A separate video, also provided by Carmignani’s lawyer and apparently taken from a nearby building, shows the former city official running down the street with Doty at his heels, swinging his rod at Carmignani’s head as he flees .
Doty’s public defender told reporters Wednesday the case was a self-defense case, in part because she says there appears to be a repeating pattern of someone matching Carmignani’s description allegedly walking within a four-block area between November 2021 and his attacked homeless people with bear spray and January 2023, based on police reports provided to her by prosecutors and police.
“In all of them the victims are not housed, the victims are either sleeping in their tents, sitting on a bench and minding their own business,” Hathaway said, citing police reports of eight separate attacks on homeless people included in discovery evidence that she has received. “Luckily, one of them was caught on video.”
CNN has requested the police reports but has not yet received them.
Carmignani has denied being the person in the videos of the bear spray attacks and says he did not commit any of the attacks.
A copy of the video provided by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office shows an apparently homeless man sleeping outside on a sidewalk. According to Hathaway, the video was recorded in November 2021 on the same street as Carmignani’s residence.
“He goes and sprays a giant can of bear spray – the same gun that was used in the Doty incident – he sprays this bear spray on the homeless. Don’t just walk by, focus on the victim’s face for at least a few seconds and then walk away,” she says.
“This man is described as 5’10”, 6’1″, 280, 300 pounds, gray hair, brown hair. Very similar and apt to what Mr. Carmignani looks like,” she said.
“I am confident that my client was aware of his (Carmignani’s) past violence,” Hathaway said, captioning an April 5 video that appears to show the first confrontation between Carmignani and her client. In that video, Hathaway says Doty can be seen running away, and the “first thing he does” is crouch down and cover his head with this coat, “implying that he’s experiencing the violence of the bear spray.” knows and has been exposed to this violence in previous incidents.”
When asked why Carmignani wasn’t charged in connection with the homeless attack, San Francisco District Attorney Brooks Jenkins told reporters Wednesday, “Nothing has been submitted to our office by the police requesting that they do anything for their purpose.” the indictment.”
Jenkins stated that she viewed a video, but that “it’s just an allegation at the moment as to who it is” and that further investigation is needed.
Jenkins added that prosecutors will continue to focus on the April 5 incident. “I am concerned about the incident that brings us to court today,” she said. “So this specific incident and what was happening at that point in time is what is primarily relevant at this point.”
According to Jenkins, Carmignani has not yet given an interview to the San Francisco Police Department, although he did do a sit-down interview with CNN affiliate KPIX.
The CNN Wire
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